


WIPs That I'm 99% Sure I Won't Finish

by I_am_very_not_aight



Category: Banana Fish (Anime & Manga), 僕のヒーローアカデミア | Boku no Hero Academia | My Hero Academia
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Alternate Universe - No Quirks (My Hero Academia), Alternate Universe - Pro Heroes (My Hero Academia), Alternate Universe - Soulmates, As Good of a Friend as he Can be, Ash Lynx Has a Crush on Okumura Eiji, Ash Lynx Is Whipped, Bakugou Katsuki Being Bakugou Katsuki, Bakugou Katsuki is a Good Friend, Bisexual Kaminari Denki, But I'm a Multishipper, Can You Guess Who My Favourite/Comfort Character Is?, Family Dynamics, Finding Your Half-Dead Classmate Is Kinda More Or Less Traumatic As Shit, Fluff and Crack, Gay Todoroki Shouto, Hint, I Will Go Down With This Ship, Implied Sexual Content, It's Kaminari Mother Fucking Denki, Jirou Kyouka is a little Shit, Kaminari Denki is a Dork, Kaminari Denki is a Little Shit, Kirishima Eijirou is a Good Friend, Let Midoriya Say Fuck, Midoriya Izuku Has PTSD - Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder, Midoriya Izuku Swears, Midoriya Izuku is Not Okay, Mmmmmmmm Todokami, Multi, Okumura Eiji Needs a Hug, Okumura Eiji is a Little Shit, Past Midoriya Izuku/Todoroki Shouto, Sibling Love, So other ships are good too, Suicide Attempt, Todoroki Shouto Being an Idiot, Yaoyorozu Momo is a Good Friend, child porn, i was just checking to see if you were still here, just kidding, kind of, let them be happy goddamnit, obviously, oh no
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-02-18
Updated: 2021-02-18
Packaged: 2021-03-10 04:07:49
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply, Underage
Chapters: 7
Words: 25,278
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27587227
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/I_am_very_not_aight/pseuds/I_am_very_not_aight
Summary: Chap 1: A KamiDeku fluff fic that kinda teeters into crackChap 2: Pro Hero Todokami AU; them meeting for the first timeChap 3: a pretty old Todokami Soulmate auChap 4: long distance Kamideku auChap 5: Kami tries to kill himself but Mido found himChap 6: Kaminari and Midoriya have a pointless argumentChap 7: Eiji goes to America and, hoe boy, he's unprepared[Please, feel free to comment if you want to see more of a particular WIP or just for any reason, I live off of feedback, I might find motivation for it eventually, who knows]
Relationships: Ash Lynx/Okumura Eiji, Ashido Mina & Bakugou Katsuki & Jirou Kyouka & Kaminari Denki & Kirishima Eijirou & Sero Hanta, Ashido Mina/Jirou Kyouka, Bakugou Katsuki/Kirishima Eijirou, Jirou Kyouka/Yaoyorozu Momo, Kaminari Denki/Midoriya Izuku, Kaminari Denki/Todoroki Shouto, bakusquad - Relationship
Comments: 13
Kudos: 59





	1. Chapter 1

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> I honestly have no idea what this is  
> 1,482 words

Midoriya flew down the halls of the hospital he knew all to well, getting annoyed and/or aggravated calls/looks after him, but he truly didn't care right now. All he cared about, what he'd been praying for for the past 48 hours, was that his boyfriend was okay. When he found the room the receptionist said he was supposed and threw the door open and quickly recognized his blonde, absolute dumbass of a partner was staring at him/the doorway in shock.

Izuku practically threw himself at Kaminari and planted his lips desperately against his lover's lips, as if it was the last thing he was ever going to do before they both just dissolved into space dust. They stayed there like that for a while, not moving too much though Denki did wrap his arms around his shoulders at one point, they just simply sat there with their lips interlocked like it's all the world meant. When they finally pulled apart, Kaminari kept his eyes closed contently for about three seconds longer then Midoriya and when opened them again, he just hung off his boyfriend's shoulders with the dopeyest look on his face that Izuku has ever seen.

"What was that for?" Denki giggled childishly, smile growing by the second as he started at the other.

Midoriya smiled for the first time in what felt like forever. "You idiot, do you have any idea how worried I was?" He scoffed a laugh.

"I can imagine," Kaminari nodded sagely, at least, what would've been sagely if he could actually break that dopey smile he still had plastered on his features.

Izuku tentatively brought a hand up and cupped the side of his partner's face. "I love you some much, you know that right?" He asked, almost a whisper.

Denki leaned into the hand and hummed in response. "Yeah," he breathed, looking back at his lover with adoring eyes.

Their moment was broken by someone clearing their throat and the two of them whipped their heads around to see who it was. Sitting there in the room with varying expressions of embarrassment, shock, or just down right amusement at what just happened was almost the entirety of class 2A, excluding Kouda, Sato, Mineta, Hagakure (she could've been there? Who knows) and thankfully, Bakugou.

The person who cleared their throat was obviously Iida judging by the fact he had a a fist brought up to his mouth and the fact that he speaks first. "Um, congratulations on, er, this," he says, awkwardly waving at them in a gesture that begs for them to understand what he was saying, an embarrassed blush on his cheeks.

"Congratulations?" Kaminari echoed, confused, glancing at Midoriya before continuing. "We've been dating for, like, a year,"

"What!?" Almost everyone yelled.

"You guys didn't know?" Todoroki hummed as he glanced around the room at the mixture of expressions, less of a question and more of a shocked observation.

There were a lot of incoherent spluttering, objections, but Izuku paid them no mind as he turned back to his boyfriend, tucking a tuft of blonde hair behind his ear, getting him to look back at him. "I don't say it enough," Midoriya said quietly, gently trying to fix the other's messy hair.

"Hm?" Denki hummed, quirking a brow in question. "Say what?" He asked, a small smile returning.

"That I love you, I don't say it as much as I should," Izuku said sadly, leaning in and placing a kiss on his boyfriend's cheek.

Kaminari giggled and smiled even wider. "What are you talking about? You tell me all the time,"

Midoriya was suddenly very aware of everyone looking at the two of them again and blushed, looking down to avoid eye contact. "Th-that's d-different," he said meekly.

Denki tilted his head in confusion, still hanging off his partner's shoulders. "Different? Different how?" He asks.

Izuku continued to blush, attempting to avoid eye contact with anyone though it wasn't easy as the room was filled with people and he was mere inches from his lover's face. He knew that Kaminari genuinely didn't understand what he had meant and he'd normally explain whatever he could to the blonde but he really didn't want to do that right now when it was extremely embarrassing and almost their entire class was there with them. 

"I-it just i-is," Midoriya stuttered, daring a glance in Kaminari's direction and almost melting at the cute confused expression on his face.

"I'm sorry, I don't get it, how's it different?" Denki confessed and Izuku nearly broke his resolve right there but stubbornly held on.

"Just... trust me on this, okay?" Midoriya asked, pleaded really, but Kaminari just huffed.

"I trust you plenty, I just don't understand how it's any different," Kaminari pouted and that was it.

Izuku's eyebrow twitched, almost irritated by Denki's refusal to just take any info without understanding first but he couldn't be mad since it was his own fault that he taught him that habit to begin with. "Never abandon a topic without understanding it first" and Kaminari had actually started asking questions all the time, not just interactions with him, but with interactions with others and even in class sometimes though not often since he usually just asks Midoriya later on instead of ruining the flow of a lesson or conversation in fear of being disruptive or seen as dumber then he's already seen.

Izuku never ever, he couldn't find it in himself, got mad at Denki for not knowing and asking questions about things, but at the moment he was just exhausted. He wasn't used to having eyes on them, most of their relationship was behind doors and so his all over the place explanations that suprisingly worked for Kaminari never had to be witnessed by anyone else and what he needed to explain was embarrassing and something he barely wanted to say even if they were alone.

"I just... doesn't matter okay? It's different, that's all that matters," Midoriya sighed, desperately hoping that he'd simply to drop it but obviously, he didn't have the luxury.

"Alright, it's different, I just don't know why....?"

Ah. That's it.

All the stress and worry built up over the past two days finally bubbled to the surface and Midoriya snapped. "It's just different when my dick is in your mouth, alright!? Is that a good explination for you!?" He shouted in frustration.

There were several beats of silence after that outburst, no one seemed to even be breathing and Izuku's heart immediately dropped the moment the words fell out of his mouth. The furious blush from before was quickly wiped away as all the colour drained from his face and he didn't dare look around to see his classmates reactions opting to just stare at his boyfriend's rapidly blinking face.

It took a moment for Denki to actually process that, both what had happened and what the other said. At first, he looked hurt, the first thing he registered was that he was yelled at, another thing Izuku never does outside of hero work and training, and being yelled at was very shocking and hurtful to experience for the first time. But once he realized what was actually said, it was down hill from there.

He snorted, letting go of his boyfriend, for the first time since he got there, and backed away slightly to cover his mouth with his hands. Kaminari cackled in what most would describe as a manic way, his hands that were clasped desperately over his mouth doing hardly anything to muffle the howling laughter that was escaping him involuntarily. A few of his friends started laughing too and Midoriya could practically imagine the horrified look on Iida's face but he didn't dare look away from the cackling boy in the hospital bed.

"Denki," Izuku whispered desperately, horrified at what he said and silently begging for it to be let go. He knew his boyfriend well enough that no way in hell that was going to happen.

Kaminari held up a hand, attempting to catch his breath but only wheezing and laughing more. 

"Denki, please-"

At that moment, the universe had determined that Izuku wasn't suffering enough and decided that it wasn't bad enough yet.

"Oi, I'm back dunce face, I didn't know what you wanted at the vending machines so you're taking what I give you!" Bakugou yelled as he kicked the door open, but paused as he saw the situation in the room.

Midoriya finally dared to look away from Kaminari and whipped his head around to look Bakugou, who looked as angry as always but a layer of confusion plastered onto his face too. Izuku also saw in his peripheral vision his classmates, all with varying looks of disgust, shock, and dead inside with the exceptions of Kirishima, Ashido, and Uraraka all desperately trying (and failing) to mask their laughing just like Kaminari.


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Todoroki recently broke up with his boyfriend Midoriya (they're still on good terms tho) but barely a day later he meets a strange man and is absolutely whipped.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Not everyone knows eachother in this one as evident by the fact that kami and todo haven't met before also Todoroki, Jirou, Yaoyorozu, and Iida all live together  
> 4,300 words

Todoroki didn't sleep well last night, or at all really.

You might be thinking "oh! He just broke up with his boyfriend, he must be a wreck!" That's not it at all, in fact, quite the opposite.  
Shouto was pretty over the whole thing already and felt really guilty how fast he came to terms with it. That was a big part of his dilemma.

He sauntered down to the living room where Yaomomo and Jirou (Iida probably had morning patrol that day) were there waiting.

"Shouto," Yaomomo greeted kindly. "You said you were going through something correct?"

Straight to the point. Todoroki sighed and plopped down on an armchair adjacent to the loveseat the other two were sitting on.

"What was so crisis inducing that you had to keep me up all night?" Jirou grumbled, leaning heavily in her girlfriend's arm.

"Yes, you could phrase it like that," Yaomomo said cautiously, gently rubbing Jirou's shoulder. "I am curious as to why you were listening to that one song in particular,"

Todoroki groaned, leaning back in his chair, throwing his head back, and looking at the ceiling. "I'm having a crisis," he said flatly.

"Uh huh, yeah, we gathered that much," Jirou grouched, nodding mockingly.

"Kyoka, I know your tired but be nice, we still don't know what's going on," Yaomomo soothed.

"Hm," Jirou hummed in compliance and buried her face into her girlfriend's side.

"Now, you were saying, Shouto?"

Todoroki sighed again and tore his eyes away from the ceiling to look back at her. "I shouldn't be moving on from Izuku as quickly as I am," he said plainly, deciding not to dwell

"Oh?" Yaoyorozu questioned and even Jirou looked up at him for this, surprised. "Why do you say that?"

"We dated for a pretty long time and I just feel like I should still be attached, y'know?" Todoroki said, sighing and dropping his head

"You two are still friends though aren't you? I'm sure it's completely normal to feel that way-" Yaoyorozu was cut off.

"Why do you- sorry babe- why do you think you're moving on too quickly?" Jirou asked.

Todoroki shifted uncomfortably in his seat. "I kind of... met someone the other day," he said quietly, avoiding their gaze.

When the silence went on for a beat too long, he decided to look at them again and the two girls were sort of just staring at him in shock.

"That is pretty quick," Yaomomo muttered to herself before looking horrified my her own words and quickly trying to remedy it. "Not that there's anything wrong with that! It's better to move on quickly then to never move on at all,"

"Yeah, I guess you're right," Todoroki agreed, nodding his head slightly.

"That doesn't explain the blasting of the same song for 5 hours+ you did last night," Jirou said. "What was that about?"

"Oh, well, I sorta barely know the guy so it made me feel even more guilty, I tried to drown out my sorrows with music but that one song came on and it reminded me ove him so I just played it over and over," Todoroki said, uncharacteristically bashful.

"Wh-"

"Ah!" Yaoyorozu put a hand over Jirou's mouth to keep her from saying anything insensitive. "How did you meet?"

"On my mission yesterday," Todoroki said simply. Yaoyorozu and Jirou looked at him expectantly for him to elaborate but he opted not to. "That's all you're getting,"

"Awe, Todowoki has a wittle crush," Jirou teased. "I didn't know you could do that,"

"Shut up," Todoroki grumbled, trying to suppress a blush.

~

Kaminari was spending one of his rare days off going out on a date, or that's what was originally planned. In the end, he was stood up, so his day wasn't exactly going the greatest to start. On top of that, as Kaminari stopped at as coffee shop, a villain burst in and started gathering people to act as hostages.

Perfect.

Of course, Kaminari wasn't caught up in that since he was leaving just as the villain came in, but the resulting chaos caused by the villains arrival made him spill his drink. Now throughly annoyed by the entire day at that point, Kaminari decided that some hero work and kicking badguy ass would be a good stress reliever. Of course, as dumb as Kaminari was, he wasn't going to just charge in there and flailing around so he opted to wait a moment and assess the situation.

The villain appeared to have been chased by a couple of heros that were now calling for back up and/or coaxing with the crowd. Kaminari walked over to the closest hero, a man with half and half hair and a blue outfit, and tapped him on the shoulder.

"Hey man, what's-" Kaminari was cut off when the man grabbed him and gently, yet very quickly, pushed him back into the crowd

"Sir, you should stay behind this point," the man said, pointing to a faint line on the ground before walking away. Kaminari stood there and blinked for afew second, shocked, before realizing why that had happened.

He wasn't in his costume. Nothing like that had ever happened to him because he was in costume and they were aware he was supposed to be there, is this scenario, neither were true.

Kaminari quickly ran after him after gaining his composure & was a little more prepared. "Hey wait!" He called and the half and half guy turned and looked rather annoyed.

"Sir," he said, putting his hands up. "It'd be better for us if everyone could cooperate, please step away and keep a safe distance,"

"No no! I get that, but I'm a hero too," Kaminari explained quickly and desperately. Half and half looked at him skeptically, surveying him up and down with and only looking more skeptical when he was done. "Okay yeah, I know I don't look it," Denki said, self consciously wrapping his jacket around himself to hide the recent coffee stains. "But swear I am, I'm just off duty,"

"Fine do you have your license with you?" Half and half asked stiffly.

"My hero license?" He asked dumbly.

"No, your driver's lic- yes your hero license!" Half and half said exasperatedly, starting to walk away, this time with more conviction.

"No! Ok, wait," Kaminari called again but this time half and half didn't stop. Denki ran up to walk side by side with the man as he talked. "I know I don't look professional but I promise you I am, can you just give me a quick run down on the situation and if I don't see anyway I can help then I'll leave, kay?"

Half and half gave him an unimpressed look and they stated at eachother for a long moment before sighing exasperatedly. "You sure are persistent aren't you?" He mused.

"Yeah, I try," Kaminari shrugged, smiling widely at the other man.

"You do know that it's illegal to do hero work without a license right?" Half and half asked.

"Yep, and I'm not worried about it cause I'm actually a hero and the fact you don't believe me is starting to sting," Kaminari responded.

"I don't have time for this. Fine, listen, I'm only gonna say this once so keep up, got it?" He said, unnecessarily forceful.

"Yes sir," Kaminari stood up straight, saluting.

"Right... so ingenium, myself, and a few others have been pursuing this guy for about an hour," he began. "We've gathered that physical attacks don't effect him and he only gets more powerful each time he's attacked but gets weaker each time he attacks for himself so we believe he's taking the power behind the attacks administered and using them as an energy source,"

"Hmm," Kaminari hummed thoughtfully. "Anything else?" He asked.

Half and half have him another skeptical look before continuing. "It's more than likely that he can't expel energy at the same time he's gathering or else he will hurt himself and so far he's been trying his hardest not to be hurt in any way so I assume it wouldn't take a lot to take him out if our attacks actually did something,"

Kaminari nodded along with him before stumbling across a thought. "Do you think he has a limit?" He asked. "Like, how much energy and power he can store in in his body until theres no more room for it all?"

Half and half kept his gaze skeptical."I mean, probably, most people have limits, why?"

"We'll just have over power him won't we?" Kaminari chuckled, grinning widely and wiping his nose unnecessarily.

Half and half narrowed his eyes at him. "That's easier said than done, no one here is equipped to do that sort of thing without taking breaks and a break would give ample time to expel whatever energy and then you're back to square one," he said bitterly.

"That's what you think, but I'm here so don't worry, I'll handle it," Kaminari said confidently and sauntered his way over to the cafe's entrance.

"H-hey wait!" Half and half reached out to him as he walked away but Kaminari was already through the door.

~

Shit.

As soon as the blonde passed through the doors, Iida came up to Shouto with questions

"Who was that," he demanded.

"Oh, hi iid- I mean, Ingenium," Todoroki shook his head. "Sorry, I have no idea who that was"

"You don't know?" Iida asked incredulously. "Was he a hero at least?"

"Maybe, he said he was but I don't think I believed him," Todoroki shrugged.

"You didn't think he was a hero and you let him run into an active crime scene?" Iida asked, almost sounding horrified.

"What was I supposed to do?" Todoroki retorted. "He wasn't exactly a reasonable kind of guy," he defended.

"Maybe go after him so a civilian doesn't die while we're on duty?" Iida said exasperatedly.

Todoroki paused a moment, blinking dumbly before guilty nodding his head. "That's a good idea," he said and made his way to the door himself.  
  
"Wait, Todoroki! Don't go in there, he might already-" but he wasn't listening, Shouto was already through the door and surveying the situation on the inside.

The hostages were all huddled in a corner, the villain in the middle of the room with his eyes on them and... the blonde was no where to be seen. He wasn't anywhere lining the room, he wasn't in the mix of hostages, he obviously wasn't engaging the villain, and he wasn't crawling across the ceiling beams like an odd kind of monkey either-

Wait a moment...

Nope, yeah, that's exactly what he was doing. He was roughly above the villain when he spotted Shouto and waived at him excitedly.

'What are you doing?" Todoroki mouthed angrily, pointing downward as if beckoning him to come down but not really doing much

'I...' the blonde mouthed back, pointing forcefully at himself. "Am going to jump on his shoulders' he continued, gesturing wildly.

Shouto stared at him in shock and almost yelled out 'are you crazy?!' but thankfully controlled himself enough to simply mouth it back at him.

The idiot- I mean, the blonde nodded enthusiastically with a thumbs up.

'Yup!' He mouthed again. 'Can you distract him for me?' He looked down expectantly.

Todoroki cursed under his breath and went back to surveying the situation. The hostages were far enough away from the villain that whatever the stranger had planned shouldn't reach them, all Shouto had to do was assist in whatever plan that was and hope he isn't completely useless. Todoroki looked back at the idiot hanging from the ceiling and gave him a thumbs up as a sign of agreement to the plan and stood up.

Shouto's movement immediately drew the attention of both the villain and the hostages "Good" Todoroki thought to himself. "The more focus on me the less likely the other guy will be spotted, let's just hope this works"

"Oh look, it's the guy from earlier," the villain announced, sounding bored. "Did you not learn from earlier? Nothing you'll do is gonna stop me, it'll make me stronger,"

"Yes," Shouto nodded, buying time for whatever the blonde had in store. "I wanted to ask you about that by the way,"

"Tch, why would I answer any of your pathetic questions," he growled.

"Just cause I'm curious," Todoroki said, shrugging. "Do you have a limit in there?"

"Hah? Limit? What kind of question is that?" The villain scoffed. "Everyone has a limit, why? You going getting me there pretty boy?"

"No, I wouldn't do that," Shouto said honestly. "Just wanna know how much you can handle,"

"Oh really?" The villain snarled menacingly. "Why should I tell you that, huh? You planning something against me runt?"

"Of course not, I just want to know exactly how much better you are then me," Shouto lied, slowly growing annoyed at how long it was taking for the idiot to act.

"Admitting I'm better now, are we?" The villain laughed. "Alright fine, I'd say about as much energy as it takes to power a house, I use to short circuit my childhood home all the time but that's about it, you think you can over power a house?" 

"Oh no, I probably-"

"A house huh?"

Everyone's attention was drawn up to the blonde, dangling from the ceiling and grinning. "That's what you said right?" He asked, almost giggly.

"Who are you short stack?" The villain growled. "What of it-"

"All I've gotta do is hit you with more power then a house," the blonde laughed. "Yeah, I think I can manage that, don't you?"

'What is he doing?' Todoroki hissed in his mind, glaring up at the blonde.

"What are you on about, Crazy?" The villain asked, scoffing again. "Why are you up there and how'd you even get on the ceiling-" he was cut off by the idiot falling onto his shoulders and wrapping his arms around the villains head and covering the man's eyes.

"Hey halfy! Back up a bit why doncha?" The blonde yelled and he struggled against the villain blindly thrashing about.

Todoroki backed himself against a far wall, thinking better then to make a run for the hostages and deciding to wait until the villain was down to see what he could do for them. He waited a moment to see what the other would do in the meantime. Normally, Shouto knows who he's working with and buy extension, their quirk and how they usually use it, the stranger was a complete mystery (and still possibly a civilian) and extremely reckless. Just as Todoroki started running though the posible scenarios in his head, (would the man try and pin the villain to the ground?) A bright light snapped his attention back to the villain and the quite literally glowing man atop his shoulders.

Todoroki squinted at the scene, barely able to see the two men surrounded by what he assumed was crackling electricity. The villain yelled and continued to thrash around, not in any pain as he was just absorbing almost all of the energy but knew that he wouldn't be able to to keep it up for long. The blonde held on for dear life, nearly getting bucked off but holding out. Once the villain reached the capacity of how much his body could contain, the idiot's quirk started to actually work effectively and it didn't take long for the bad guy to get overwhelmed and pass out.

There was about three seconds of heavy silence after the blonde stopped using his quirk as the roughly 12 ft tall villain hung there before leaning and free falling. The idiot that what still sitting upon the mans shoulders shrieked as he teetered backwards off the villain as they both fell.

Shouto knew that he couldn't catch the villain, also how it was unnecessary, but he could catch the idiotic man he had followed in the first place. So that's exactly what he did. Shouto ran, faster then he ever remembers running before, and caught the guy before he hit the ground.

The blonde, disoriented, immediately wrapped his arms around Todoroki's neck. They hung there for a moment, regaining their composure, before looking at one another at the same time, eyes locking together.

This was the first good look Shouto got of the man and boy was it something. Of course, he had a vague impression before, he was blonde, dumb and reckless, and not the most built man he's seen. Up close, not much changed. 

With the man in Todoroki's arms, he could feel how he wasn't particularly muscly, nor did he weigh very much. He didn't have many defining features except a black lighting bolt in his hair that Shouto had previously assumed was just the shadow of his hair but nope, very prominent. His face wasn't too remarkable either. An okay jawline, not too sharp and not too soft, an average nose and lips but his eyes-

Oh God the eyes.

Todoroki had been ready to just write him off, put him down, go about the rest of the work and clean up that needed to be done but he was caught. Golden eyes stared up at him and he stared back. They weren't overly wide like his friend's Midoriya, Uraraka, and Tsuyu, but they weren't squinting and scowling like Bakugou's or his father's were. They fit him quite nicely actually.

His eyes were very confusing for Shouto which only made him stare more. There appeared to be a flicker of electricity that danced around his iris making them almost glow. They looked confused and knowing and everything all at once but more then anything, the blonde just appeared to be dazed.

They were both snapped out of whatever trance they were in when those beautiful golden eyes suddenly blinked. His face before looked like he hasn't comprehending anything (was he drooling?) but he then blinked a couple times and smiled widely. 

'Damn, that smile was alluring too,' Shouto cursed in the back of his head.

"That was pretty good, huh?" The blonde giggled, nearly falling out of secure arms.

"You're a fool," Todoroki grumbled, placing the man down and doing his best to hide a blush. 

"Hah, you're just mad I beat you to the punch-" the blonde joked around but stumbled and Todoroki reached out to keep him from falling.

"Are you alright?" Shouto asked, worried.

"Ah," the idiot hummed, leaning heavily into him. "Yeah, I'm alright, it's just been a while since I've had to expel that much energy, I just need a moment to recover,"

Todoroki looked over at the former hostages and adressed as he held onto the blonde's shoulders to keep him steady. "If you all could calmly and quietly exit the building, there are other heroes outside who can assist you,"

Once all the civilians were out of the building, that just left Shouto, the idiot blonde, and an unconscious villain.

"Are you alright?" Shouto asked again, hesitantly taking his hands off the other's shoulders to test if he could actually stay up on his own. 

"I'm good," the man chuckled. "What're we doing with this lug?" He asked, lightly kicking the villain in the side of the head.

"Turn him into the police?" Todoroki said obviously. "I thought you said you were a hero, you should know this stuff,"

"Okay, yeah, right, sorry," the blonde rambled. "Sorry, my brain's a little fried right now, I don't know, let's just go," he said, making his way to follow the hostages out the door.

Todoroki quickly followed him out but the moment he breached outside, he was bombarded by press looking for the story, civilians looking for autographs, and the hostages looking to thank him. By the time he was out of their way, the blonde idiot was seemingly gone. He scanned the area at least five times and was about to give up when he saw a glimpse of yellow hair at the outskirts if the crowd.

"H-hey," he called out to him, almost tripping over a few people as he made his over.

The blonde turned around looking stunned, his mind clearly still not in it's peak cognitive shape. When Shouto came up in front of him, he remembered something, he had virtually no people skills. He nearly simply blurted out "you're hot" when staring into his eyes earlier and he really didn't want something like that coming out by accident.

Todoroki just stood awkwardly in front of the man trying to figure out what to say. A few moments too long into the silence between them, Todoroki thought of something. He and Jirou had been practicing a look in the mirror that, Jirou claims, will work on almost anyone paired with the right words and a wink. Shouto personally never saw flirting as a useful tool in his arsenal but social skills weren't in there either so he might as well give it a try.

Of course, Jirou specializes in flirting with women so obviously that's what she was teaching him, he did have a little issue with flirting with the same sex as most of the time, men don't want to be woo-ed with things like "you're deserving of heavens throne"

Shouto put on his best, kindest smile he could muster and talked to the blonde. "Next time we meet, I hope it's under better circumstances, or at least when you have your license," he said, with a slightly out of place wink before walking away.

Todoroki knew that whatever reaction the man would have was going to be delayed, he would need to work extra hard to understand it since his brain wasn't top tier at the moment, but he didn't want to look. Shouto did, however, catch another glimpse of him as he was leaving and seeing the idiot redfaced and even more disoriented made Todoroki's heart swell uncontrollably and he wouldn't have been able to suppress the satisfied smirk that grew on his face even if he tried.

And then he tried really hard not to think about it.

Like, he really tried, and he had succeeded for the rest of the day, it wasn't until he was sitting in his room and listening through yet another playlist Jirou had suggested to him that he heard it. A song that made his heart race and imagine the strange idiot he met that afternoon, so fitting and revealing of all the emotions he refused to let surface until hours later and coming to terms with that maybe Shouto felt a little too proud then to be normal when he saw that he made the blonde blush.

-

"So yeah, that's basically what happened yesterday," Shouto explained to the girls, blushing hard at the fact he was explaining so much and delving into his feelings. "What do you two think?" He asked tentatively, silently begging for answers to all the things he knew almost nothing about himself and the young man he just met.

"Wow," Jirou whistled. "You know what I think?"

"What?" Todoroki asked hopefully.

"You're... GAY! Oh my God how you're gay!" She cackled making Shouto deflate slightly. "You fell in love with his eyes!? Christ, what kind of romance novel are you living in?"

"Kyoka," Yaomomo said disapprovingly. "He's not use to this stuff, leave him alone,"

"I..." Todoroki mumbled, getting the girl's attention back on him. "I never felt that way before... not even with Midoriya..."

The two girls shared a look that he didn't quite understand before Momo reached out and squeezed his knee comfortingly. "Hey... that's completely okay, experiencing new things, especialky good things, is part of life,"

"Right..." Todoroki accepted softly.

"Whelp," Jirou huffed, clapping her hands together, standing up, and stretching out her back. "Oof- it's been fun, but I've gotta go and get some Googling done," she said, making her way to leave.

"Googling?" Shouto blinked, confused.

"Well yeah," she said, as if it were obvious. "I'm gonna look for all the heroes that have electrical quirks and find your celebrity run in,"

"Oh, thank you Jirou," Todoroki nodded nicely "You do realise I'm probably more if a celebrity then he is though, right? I've never even heard of him before today,"

"Does that make you any less infatuated with him?" Jirou grinned mischievously.

Shouto's face burned with a blush and he turned away from her, muttering a pitiful "no"

"That's what I thought!" Jirou laughed and she left the room.

That just left him and Yaomomo. Yaoyorozu had watched her girlfriend leave and once gone, she stands up too. Instead of going to leave though, she takes a few small steps to bridge the gap between herself and Shouto, wrapping her arms around him and gently pushing his head down to rest in the crook of her neck.

"It's okay too feel things," Momo said comfortingly rubbing circles into Shouto's back. "And it's okay not to understand them, I need to go to work but you should get some rest, I can tell you didn't sleep last night," she said softly before slowly pulling away to look him in the eyes.

"Yeah, okay, thank you," Todoroki smiled weakly, but not honestly, at her. "What would I do without you?" He asked jokingly.

"Arson probably," Yaoyorozu joked back, causing them both to chuckle.

"Maybe," Shouto said thoughtfully. "I'll see you later Yaomomo,"

"I'll bring you home some soba, is that okay?" She asked as she paused at the door.

His heart swelled, this time friendly fondness "That would be perfect, thank you so much,"

"It's no problem-"

"For everything," Shouto added shyly, yet incredibly sincerely.

Momo blinked in shock for a moment before melting into a kind smile. "Anytime ♡"


	3. Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> This one's pretty old, sorry it's bad  
> 9,544 words

Even in a world with quirks and heroes, the fact that soulmates exist is still a really odd phenomenon. The fact that the universe, your body, just knows who you're destined to love from the moment you're born? It's even more nonsensical then having a horn grow out of your head or having psychokinesis. There were all sorts of ways to identify a soulmate, some rarer than others, and most of them were easily recognizable or obvious.

This fact worried Shouto, even if he'd probably never admit it.

If you went outside in the world he was living in today, sure, you'd see some fascinating quirks, but you'd also see red strings stretching all throughout the streets that had a soulmate on either end. You'd see people with black or colourful blotches that indicated where their soulmate will/did touch them for the first time. You'd see people with the first words their soulmate will say to them written on them. You'd meet people who can't see colour until they meet their soulmate.

There were so many different types of identifying soulmates and Shouto saw them all the time. His sister, Fuyumi, has a timer that counts down to when she meets hers and his brother, Natsuo, has his soulmate's name written on his wrist. Their father never talked about soulmates unless he was saying something along the lines of "they're a nonsensical waste of time" and Shouto wouldn't be surprised if his father didn't have a soulmate in the first place.

This was the type of stuff that made Shouto think. 'What about me?'. Shouto didn't have anything. No string, no words on his body, no issue seeing colours, nothing that indicated that he had a soulmate at all. When he was younger, he had always been raised to think soulmates were a waste of time, becoming a hero was what he was made to do and that meant that there will never be room for things like a romance with your soulmate. None of this stopped Shouto though because he thought about it every chance he could, he looked up rare soulmate connections to see if there was anything he could compare himself to, but there was nothing.

He had no out of place cuts or bruises, he couldn't hear his soulmate's thoughts, no unexplainable force pulling him in any direction. Absolutely nothing and it was like this for a while. Shouto and his sister have had a few conversations about it, she had always said that he probably wouldn't know until he met his soulmates and it was a sweet sentiment, but he always felt awful about it. He didn't really care too much about it, just the normal 'why am I an exception?' question. Maybe there was a person out there that could've been his soulmate but the universe decided that he was unlovable and took away that luxury from both of them.

One night, when Shouto was around 14, his father was out of town for a few days and he was sitting around the table eating dinner with his two siblings. They ate in silence for the most part until near the end of the meal, Fuyumi spoke up.

"Do you need a note pad, Shouto?" She asked, gently placing her chopsticks down and smiling warmly at him.

Shouto gave her a questioning look as he swallowed his mouthful before answering. "No, why do you ask?" 

"Well it looks like you've been writing notes on your arm, I just thought you might want to keep them better," Fuyumi said, gesturing to his right arm.

Shoto looked down and was shocked to see that she was right, there was a small scribble of words on his wrist that he didn't remember writing. "Doctors appointment at 9:40 am..." he read out loud. 'But I don't have a doctor's appointment' he thought, looking skeptically at his wrist as he took a cloth to rub it off.

"What'd ya say?" Natsuo asked, leaning forward slightly to hear him better.

"Nothing," Shouto shook his head, looking down to see he had effectively wiped the messy handwriting away. "And no, I don't need a notebook, thank you though,"

The three of them lapsed into a comfortable silence as they finished their food until there was the sound of chopsticks hitting a plate was heard. Shouto and Fuyumi looked up to their brother, expecting him to be finished his food, but instead, Natsuo was looking at Shouto in shock and it took them a second to realize he was looking at Shouto's wrist. Shouto looked down his wrist and almost jumped as he realized what his brother was staring at, there were words slowly being written down on his skin without anyone touching him and no pen in sight. 

"What the actual..." Natsuo whispered but Shouto didn't take his eyes off his wrist. The writing was much neater this time, obviously being done much slower and carefully. The new words read as "Appt. time changed to 10:30" in different ink. Shouto quickly recognized it as permanent marker and groaned internally at the fact that it's going to be more difficult to remove, which was probably the intention.

"Shouto, do you know what that is?" Shouto looked up to see his sister almost with excitement that he didn't understand.

"No," he admitted. "What is it?"

Fuyumi practically launched herself up from where she was sitting, scurrying over to Shouto, and wrapping her arms in a tight hug around his shoulders. As Shouto was being squeezed, he looked over at Natsuo so see if he had answers, but his brother simply shook his head and shrugged.

"We should have tried that sooner," Fuyumi grumbled as she slowly let go of her brother, bringing one hand up to her forehead in a rather miserable excuse for a facepalm.

"Try what? What is it?" Shouto asked, thoroughly confused about everything right now.

His sister's demeanour quickly changed back to an odd form of enthusiasm as she looked back at him. "It's your soulmate!"

"What....?"

~

Fuyumi had explained to both her brothers about the soulmate connection that Shouto had. It was an uncommon but not at all rare type where when you write something on yourself, it shows up on your soulmate's skin as well. Fuyumi had shooed Shouto off to his room to write something to his soulmate (she was obviously more excited about the new revelation then he) and he had hardly slept that night because of it.

After he woke up the next day, Shouto didn't even think about it until around noon and he looked down at his wrist. He suddenly thought of a nice, semi appropriate first thing to say to them and after scrubbing at his wrist to get the ink to fade a little more, he wrote the message:

"нσω ωαѕ уσυя ∂я'ѕ αρρσιηтмєηт?"

It was a long, anxious hour before Shouto got any response.

"ₐᵣₑ yₒᵤ ₘy ₛₒᵤₗₘₐₜₑ?"

Was suddenly, and obviously frantically, scrawled across his arm. That's not an answer to my question Shouto thought to himself, amused, before writing an answer.

"уєѕ"

Another moment passed before Shouto watched all the ink in front of him be furiously wiped away and more, extremely messy and rushed, writing appeared quickly afterwards.

"ₒₕₒₖ, ₛₒᵣᵣy fₒᵣ ₜₐₖᵢₙg ₛₒ ₗₒₙg ₜₒ wᵣᵢₜₑ, ᵢₜ ᵣₑₐₗₗy fᵣₑₐₖₑd ₘₑ ₒᵤₜ cₐᵤₛₑ ᵢ'ᵥₑ ₙₑᵥₑᵣ ₕₑₐᵣd ₐbₒᵤₜ ₜₕᵢₛ ₖᵢₙd ₒf ₛₒᵤₗₘ₈ ᵤₙₜᵢₗ ⱼᵤₛₜ ₙₒw"

Shouto smiled to himself for a second before shaking his head, snapping himself out of the weird feeling he had suddenly acquired, and writing back.

"ιт'ѕ σкαу, ωну ∂ι∂ уσυ gσ тσ тнє ∂σ¢тσя'ѕ?"

His soulmate rubbed away their previous writing before writing again themselves.

"ᵢ bᵣₒₖₑ ₘy ₗₑg ₙₒₜ ₜₒₒ ₗₒₙg ₐgₒ, ᵢ gₒₜ ₘy cₐₛₜ cₕₐₙgₑd ₜₒdₐy"

"тнαт'ѕ тσσ вα∂, нσω ∂ι∂ уσυ мαηαgє тнαт?"

"Fₑₗₗ ₒᵤₜ ₐ ₜᵣₑₑ"

Shouto couldn't help the laughter that bubbled up and out of his mouth at the quick straightforward answer. He clapped a hand over his mouth, surprised at his own outburst, and hurriedly composed himself. Even though his soulmate couldn't see and/or hear his reactions, Shouto still felt the need to make a good first impression.

"ωну ωєяє уσυ ιη α тяєє?"

"ₕₐᵥₑ yₒᵤ ₙₑᵥₑᵣ ⱼᵤₛₜ fₑₗₜ ₜₕₑ ₙₑₑd ₜₒ cₗᵢₘb ₐ gₒₒd ₜᵣₑₑ?"

"ησ?"

"ₘₐₙ, yₒᵤᵣ bₒᵣᵢₙg ₕᵤₕ?"

"уσυ'яє"

"ₑₓₐcₜₗy"

Shouto had no idea why he was feeling the way he was right now (he'll ask his sister about it later) but it was really odd. Don't get him wrong, it wasn't a BAD feeling, just a new one that he wasn't use to nor did he understand. Shouto paused, wiping away the writting, before he wrote his next words. He was originally going to say something flat, act how he normally would, that was until he remembered something.

His soulmate knew nothing about him.

They had never talked to each other before today, so Shouto's soulmate had no idea how he normally behaved. This means, he could say whatever he wanted in whatever way he wanted to and the person on the other end would have no idea that "the prodigy son of Endeavor" was behaving unceremoniously. His soulmate would be none the wiser about Shouto saying something "out of character" because they had no idea what that character was supposed to be. For some unknown reason (again, he'll ask his sister about it later) Shouto felt almost giddy at the idea of saying anything he wanted with close to no repercussions. Sure, his soulmate might thing he's weird but soulmates are meant to love each other unconditionally no matter what, first impressions don't matter anymore.

"тнιѕ ιѕ ωєιя∂" Shouto finally jot down.

"ₜₕₑ cₒₙₙₑcₜᵢₒₙ? ᵢ ₐgᵣₑₑ, ᵢ'ₗₗ ₕₐᵥₑ ᵢₙₖₛₜₐᵢₙₛ ₒₙ ₘy ₐᵣₘ fₒᵣ D ₐ Y ₛ"

"ησ, ησт נυѕт тнαт, ѕσυℓмαтєѕ ιη gєηєяαℓ"

"ₒₕ"

Shouto moved to write something else but was cut off by his soulmate rubbing away their previous writing and scribbling something themselves.

"ᵢ ᵤₙdₑᵣₛₜₐₙd, ₛₒₘₑwₕₑᵣₑ ₐᵣₒᵤₙd ₐgₑ ₉ ₘₑ ₐₙd ₘy fₐₘᵢₗy ₕₐd ⱼᵤₛₜ ₐccₑₚₜₑd ₜₕₐₜ ᵢ ₚᵣₒbₐbₗy dᵢdₙ'ₜ ₕₐᵥₑ ₐ ₛₒᵤₗₘₐₜₑ ₐₜ ₐₗₗ"

Shouto could feel the sad yet equally happy ardor flowing out of the words and falling into his lap. That wasn't at all what Shouto meant when he said that but he knew exactly what they meant. His father had long since accepted, maybe was even happy about, the fact that Shouto most likely didn't have a soulmate and a large part of him wanted to shove the knowledge of his newfound soulmate connection in his stupid flame ridden face.

"мє тσσ" he drew up, deciding to take the relatable route. "ωє тнσυgнт ƒσя тнє ℓσηgєѕт тιмє ι ωαѕ вяσкєη αη∂ υηℓσναвℓє"

"Yₑₐ, wₑₗₗ, gₒₒd ₙₑwₛ fₒᵣ ᵤₛ, wₑ ₐᵢₙ'ₜ bᵣₒₖₑ"

"уєαн, ι тнιηк ωє'яє σкαу"

Shouto smiled small down at his wrist, he knew a soulmate connection was a strong bond between people who are destined to be perfect for one another (whether it be romantically or otherwise) but he had no idea what it might feel like.

"Yᵤₚ, wₑ'ᵣₑ ₒₖ fₒᵣ ₜₕₑ ₘₒₛₜ ₚₐᵣₜ"

"тнιѕ ιѕ ωєιя∂"

"Yₒᵤ ₐₗᵣₑₐdy ₛₐᵢd ₜₕₐₜ"

"ι кησω, вυт ι мєαη ιт ∂ιƒƒєяєηтℓу тнιѕ тιмє"

"ₜₕₑₙ wₕₐₜ dₒ yₒᵤ ₘₑₐₙ?"

"тнιѕ ƒєєℓιηg, ι ∂ση'т тнιηк ι'νє ƒєℓт ιт вєƒσяє"

"Fₑₑₗᵢₙg?"

"уєѕ"

There was a pause, it wasn't too long, but every second felt like a painful hour passing with Shouto's heart beating anxiously and echoing through his hollow feeling body. The other ink was wiped away and his soulmate wrote again.

"ᵢ ₜₕᵢₙₖ ᵢₜ'ₛ ₙₒᵣₘₐₗ"

"уσυ ∂σ?"

"Yₑₐ, ₘy dₐd'ₛ ₐₗwₐyₛ ₛₐᵢd ₛₒᵤₗₘₐₜₑₛ ₘₐₖₑ yₒᵤ fₑₑₗ ₗᵢₖₑ ₜₕₑ wₒᵣₗd ᵢₛ ₑₙdᵢₙg bᵤₜ ᵢₙ ₐ gₒₒd wₐy"

"нσω ¢αη тнє єη∂ σƒ тнє ωσяℓ∂ вє α gσσ∂ тнιηg?"

"ᵢₜ'ₛ ₙₒₜ" They wrote simply, then taking a moment to wash the ink away once more. "Bᵤₜ wₕₐₜₑᵥₑᵣ ᵢₜ ᵢₛ, yₒᵤ'ᵣₑ fₑₑₗᵢₙg ᵢₜ wᵢₜₕ yₒᵤᵣ ₛₒᵤₗₘₐₜₑ ₛₒ ₑᵥₑᵣyₜₕᵢₙg ᵢₛ ₒₖ, yₒᵤᵣ ₛₒᵤₗₘₐₜₑ ᵢₛ ₛᵤₚₚₒₛₑd ₜₒ ₘₐₖₑ ₑᵥₑᵣyₜₕᵢₙg ₒₖ"

Shouto just looked at the words in front of him for a few moments, smiling against his will with no way to stop himself. It reminded him of something he might read in a poetry book, filled to the brim with sonnets of love and affectionate syllables.

"тнαт'ѕ ωнαт нє ѕαуѕ?" Shouto decides to write.

"Yᵤₚ"

"ιѕ тнαт нσω уσυ ƒєєℓ яιgнт ησω?"

"ᵢ dₒₙ'ₜ ₖₙₒw, ₘₐybₑ?"

"тєℓℓ мє нσω уσυ ƒєєℓ"

"ᵢ fₑₑₗ ₗᵢₖₑ ᵢ fₑₑₗ ₕₒw ᵢ'ₘ ₛᵤₚₚₒₛₑd ₜₒ fₑₑₗ ₐₙd ₜₕₐₜ ᵢ ₗᵢₖₑ yₒᵤ"

Shouto wipes away the previous writing and chuckles to himself as he constructs what he writes next

"ι'∂ нσρє ѕσ, тнαт ∂єƒєαтѕ тнє ωнσℓє ρσιηт σƒ ѕσυℓмαтєѕ ιƒ уσυ ∂ι∂ηт ℓιкє мє"

"ₒₕ ₕᵤₛₕ, yₒᵤ ₖₙₒw wₕₐₜ ᵢ ₘₑₐₙ""

"уєαн, ι ∂σ"

His soulmates cleaned the writing again.

"ₜₕᵢₛ fₑₑₗᵢₙg ₜₕₒᵤgₕ, ᵢₜ'ₛ ₙₑw ₐₙd ₙᵢcₑ ₐₙd ᵢ ₗᵢₖₑ ₜₕₐₜ yₒᵤ'ᵣₑ ₐ ₚₐᵣₜ ₒf ᵢₜ""

"ι gυєѕѕ тнαт'ѕ ωну ωє'яє ѕσυℓмαтєѕ"

"?"

"тнє υηινєяѕє нαѕ ∂є¢ι∂є∂ тнαт ωє'яє ρєяƒє¢т ƒσя єα¢нσтнєя, тωσ нαℓνєѕ σƒ тнє ѕαмє ωнσℓє, ι gυєѕѕ тнαт'ѕ ωнαт ωє'яє ƒєєℓιηg"

"Wₕₐₜ?"

"ωнσℓє, ƒυℓℓ, вєιηg ¢σмρℓєтє вє¢αυѕє σƒ єα¢нσтнєя"

"ₜₕₐₜ, bᵤd, ᵢₛ wₕₐₜ ᵢ cₐₗₗ ᵣₒₘ₋cₒₘ ₘₒᵥᵢₑ ₗₑᵥₑₗₛ ₒf c ₕ ₑ ₑ ₛ ₑ"

Shouto scowled playfully at his arm as he washed away their interaction despite his soulmate not being able to see him.

"σн, ℓιкє уσυ'яє αηу вєттєя мя. ¢αѕαησνα"

"ₕₐₕ, ₜₕₐₜ'ₛ fₐᵢᵣ"

His soulmate wiped the ink away again then wrote.

"ₐₙywₐy, ᵢ gₑₜ ᵢₜ"

"уσυ ∂σ?"

"Yₑₐ, ₜₕₑ fₑₑₗᵢₙg yₒᵤᵣ ₜₐₗₖᵢₙg ₐbₒᵤₜ"

"уєα?"

""Yᵤₚ, ᵢ fₑₑₗ ᵢₜ ₜₒₒ"

"ι'м нαρρу тσ нєαя тнαт"

"ᵢ'ₘ ⱼᵤₛₜ ₕₐₚₚy wₑ'ᵣₑ ₙₒₜ bᵣₒₖₑₙ"

Shouto's face had stated to hurt from all the new smiling he never use to do before, but he really didn't mind. He was just about to write something else when he heard the door open and the unmistakable thump of his father's boots being thrown to the ground. 'He wasn't supposed to be home until tomorrow' Shouto internally grumbled, rushing to his washroom, pen still in hand, and writing a quick message.

"уєα, ℓιѕтєη, ι яєαℓℓу ℓσνє∂ тαℓкιηg вυт ι'νє gσттα gσ"

His soulmate barely got the chance to write their reply before Shouto viciously started scrubbing away at his arm. He ripped his sleeve down as his father appeared in the door, glowering down at him.

"What are you doing?"

"Washing my hands," Shouto spat as well as his monotone voice could manage, pushing past him to evade any unnecessary conversation with the man. His father snagged his wrist as he was slipping past, making him turn around and they stare at one another, equally hate filled. Shouto hated to admit it but he probably wouldn't be able to tear away from his father's grip, even if he tried, and he tried not to show the pain he felt in the death grip on his already slightly sore wrist (from all the scrubbing)

"Your U.A exam is in a few days, don't make a fool out of me," Enji said coolly. "You aren't allowed to fail," he added, narrowing his eyes threateningly at his son.

Shouto tried to suppress the eyeroll that he threatened to preform, managing to do an odd sort of half blink motion. "They couldn't fail me even if they wanted to, don't twist your tits," he murmured under his breath and was almost immediately yanked forward and nearly nose to nose with his understandably livid father.

"What did you just say?" He growled and Shouto had enough sense to stay silent this time. They glowered at each other for at least a minute before Shouto's father abruptly stood up and practically threw him to the ground. "Meet me in the training grounds in ten minutes, and don't expect your sister to patch you up again," he said before stomping away.

Perfect. Good mood? Ruined.

~

Kaminari practically danced around the house the rest of the day before being scooped up. He had half the mind to scream before realizing who it was.

"Wanna tell me why you're prancing around this late?" His father, Jin, asked, picking Denki up and swinging the boy in his arms. 

"AHHH- oh, hahahaha, dad stop!" He giggled, halfass struggling against the grip.

"Not until you tell me about your day!" Jin (rather childishly) squealed and buried his face into his son's neck, blowing raspberries into the skin. 

Denki screeched, giggled, riled, and flailed around until he was panting on the ground and looking up at his not-so-apologetic looking father. "I- *wheeze* -hate you SO- *cough* -fuckin much"

"Language," his father warned halfheartedly before extending a hand to help him up. The two walked over to the dining table and sat opposite of one another.

"Oh come on!" Denki playfully protested. "You act like a child just as much as I do, don't try and parent me right now,"

Jin threw his head back laughing before reaching over the table and ruffling his son's hair. "Oh come now," he glowed. "I wanna know what's going on in my son's life, is that so wrong?"

"It is when you nearly give me an asthma attack," Denki said, crossing his arms to seem mad but it didn't match the wide, amused smile he wore on his face.

"Wow," Jin said breathlessly. "You're too ecstatic to even be partially mad at me,"

"Yup," Denki nodded, rather matter-of-factly. "Not even Mum could ruin my mood right now," he grinned

"Huh!" Jin huffed in disbelief. "What crawled up and tickled your butthole?"

Denki blushed deeply and looked at his father in horror. "Dad!"

His father held his hands up in surrender and smiled apologetically. "Okay okay, sorry," he said, not sorry at all. "I've crossed a line,"

"Ya think?" Denki asked incredulously.

"Er, well," Jin glanced around, shifting in his seat awkward. "It's funny you mention your mother..."

Denki felt his smile falter for the first time since his soulmate had contacted him a few hours ago. "Did you see her today?" He asked, a little more forceful then intended.

Jin smiled playfully at his son, but it ended up looking more sympathetic then anything else. "Guess you were wrong, she can ruin your mood..." he chuckled slightly, Denki just looked at him blankly, not even acknowledging the humor in the statement getting the father to attempt to cut the attention with a fake cough.

"Did you see her today?" He repeated, almost growling and grimacing at his father.

Jin sighed and sunk in his chair. "You have to realize, Denki, we've had three kids together," he said calmly, wringing his hands out in front of himself. "Its very hard not to talk to her,"

"She's mental!" Denki protested.

"This is your mother we're talking about-"

"I don't care!" He shouted angrily, standing up and slamming his hands on the table. "She has no right to keep poping up in our lives when we want nothing to do with her!"

"You can't avoid her for forever-"

"I can and we will!" Denki fumed, crossing his arms.

Jin looked at his son sadly for a long moment before standing up and sidestepping the table. He put his arm around Denki's shoulders and squeezed him in a half side hug. "Ok, I'm sorry for ruining your good mood, we'll talk about this later,"

The tension in Denki's shoulders almost immediately disappeared and he hugged his father back. "Thanks,"

"So," Jin sang, mischievous grin returning to his face. "What had you so giddy earlier?" 

Denki blushed slightly and took a step away from him. "Oh, you know, I kinda have a soulmate," he laughed

Jin blinked dumbly before squealing and picking his son up in a bone crushing hug. "Oh my goodness, I'm so happy!" He cried.

"Dad-"

"I was so worried for you, so many people could ridicule you for being different but now your gonna be just fine, oh I'm just-"

"Dad your crushing me!" Denki gasped, struggling to breathe.

Jin dropped him and bowed slightly in apology. "Sorry! I'm just so happy! What's their name? Is it a girl? What're they like? Do you like them? You don't have to be with your soulmate, you do know that right? And-"

"Dad, calm down, I barely know anything,"

"Well, what do you know," Jin asked eagerly. 

"Well..." Denki thought for a moment. "They're definitely smarter then me,"

"That's not hard to do," his father teased.

"Oh shush," Denki rolled his eyes.

"Sorry, sorry, carry on,"

Denki thought for a moment, trying to word his opinion on his soulmate based on their very short interaction. "They're kinda philosophical,"

"Oooo, big words,"

"I'm serious!" Denki stomped. "They were all like 'emotions are weird and I've never felt things' yknow? I kinda dig it,"

"It's opposites attract, emotionless and smart plus emotional and dumb," Jin commented, bumping his shoulder with his son.

"Ok, we get it, I'm dumb," Denki said, thoroughly unimpressed. "You love stating the fact, can we move on?"

Jin threw his arms around Denki's neck, squeezed him in a tight hug, and rubbed his cheek against his, smiling wildly. "Nope, I do this because I love you!"

~

"Gₒₒd ₘₒᵣₙᵢₙg ₛₒᵤₗₘₐₜₑ! ᵢₜ ᵢₛ ₘₒᵣₙᵢₙg wₕₑᵣₑ yₒᵤ ₐᵣₑ ᵣᵢgₕₜ?"

"уєѕ, ι вєℓιєνє ωє'яє ιη тнє ѕαмє тιмєzσηє"

"ₛwₑₑₜ, wₕₐₜ'ₛ ᵤₚ?"

"ησтнιηg яєαℓℓу, нσω αвσυт уσυ?"

"Wₑₗₗ...."

"υн σн, тнαт ∂σєѕη'т ѕσυη∂ gσσ∂"

"ₘy dₐd ₕₐₛ ₐ ₗₒₜ ₒf qᵤₑₛₜᵢₒₙₛ fₒᵣ yₒᵤ"

"σн, тнαт'ѕ ησт тσσ вα∂, αѕк αωαу"

"ₒₙₑ qᵤₑₛₜᵢₒₙ ₐₜ ₐ ₜᵢₘₑ ₒᵣ ₐₗₗ ₐₜ ₒₙcₑ?"

"нσω мαηу qυєѕтισηѕ αяє уσυ gσηηα αѕк?"

...

"ₐ ₗₒₜ"

"тнєη ι'м gσηηα gσ ωιтн σηє αт α тιмє,"

"ₒₖ, fᵢᵣₛₜ, ₐᵣₑ yₒᵤ gₑₙdₑᵣ wᵢₛₑ ₍gᵤy, gᵢᵣₗ, ₐₙyₜₕᵢₙg ₒᵣ ₙₒₜₕᵢₙg₎"

"ι'м мαℓє"

"ₒₖₒₖ, wₕₐₜ'ₛ yₒᵤᵣ ₙₐₘₑ?"

...

"∂σ ι нανє тσ тєℓℓ уσυ?"

"ᵢ ₘₑₐₙ, ₙₒₜ ₜₑcₕₙᵢcₐₗₗy"

"σк, ι ωαѕ נυѕт тнιηкιηg ιт'∂ вє тσσ єαѕу ιƒ ωє кηєω єα¢нσтнєя'ѕ ηαмєѕ"

"Yₒᵤ dₒ ₖₙₒw ₜₕₐₜ ₛₒₘₑ ₚₑₒₚₗₑ'ₛ ₛₒᵤₗₘₐᵣₖₛ ₐᵣₑ ⱼᵤₛₜ ₙₐₘₑₛ ᵣᵢgₕₜ?"

"уєαн, αη∂ ι αℓωαуѕ тнσυgнт ιт ωαѕ єαѕу αη∂ gℓα∂ ι ∂ι∂η'т нανє ιт"

"ₒₖₒₖ, ₙₒ ₙₐₘₑₛ, cₐₙ ᵢ ₐₜ ₗₑₐₛₜ ₖₙₒw yₒᵤᵣ ᵢₙᵢₜᵢₐₗₛ?"

"ѕ. т"

"ₕₐₕₐ"

"ωнαт? ωнαт'ѕ ƒυηηу?"

"ₙₒₜₕᵢₙg, ᵢₜ ⱼᵤₛₜ ᵣₑₘᵢₙdₛ ₘₑ ₒf ₜᵣᵤₗy ₛcᵣᵤₘₚₜᵢₒᵤₛ"

"ιѕ тнαт... ƒяσм ѕσмєтнιηg ι ∂ση'т gєт?"

"ᵢf yₒᵤ ₖₙₒw, yₒᵤ ₖₙₒw"

"нυн?"

"ₙₒₜₕᵢₙg"

"σк, ωнαт αяє уσυя ιηιтιαℓѕ?"

"D. ₖ"

"нαн, тнαт яємιη∂ѕ мє σƒ ѕσмєтнιηg тσσ"

"Wₕₐₜ ᵢₛ ᵢₜ?"

"∂σηку кσηg"

"ₒf cₒᵤᵣₛₑ"

"ι'м ησт ωяσηg"

"ₙₒ, ₛₐdₗy, yₒᵤ'ᵣₑ ₙₒₜ"

"нαн"

"Gᵤₑₛₛ ₜₕₒₛₑ ₐᵣₑ ₒᵤᵣ ₙₐₘₑₛ ₙₒw"

"?"

"ᵢ'ₘ Dₒₙₖy ₖₒₙg ₐₙd yₒᵤᵣ ₜᵣᵤₗy ₛcᵣᵤₘₚₜᵢₒᵤₛ"

"σнн, ι gυєѕѕ ѕσ"

"ₛₒ, ₜᵣᵤₗy, ₐₗₗ ₘy ₒₜₕₑᵣ qᵤₑₛₜᵢₒₙₛ gₒ ₐgₐᵢₙₛₜ yₒᵤᵣ wₕₒₗₑ 'ₜₒₒ ₑₐₛy' ₚₕᵢₗₒₛₒₚₕy, ₛₒ ᵢ wₒₙ'ₜ ₐₛₖ"

"σк, ¢αη ι αѕк ѕσмє?"

"ₖₙₒcₖ yₒᵤᵣₛₑₗf ₒᵤₜ"

"нσω σℓ∂ αяє уσυ?"

"ₒₕ wₒw, dᵢdₙ'ₜ ₑᵥₑₙ ₜₕᵢₙₖ ₐbₒᵤₜ ₜₕₐₜ ₒₙₑ, ᵢ'ₘ ₁₄, ᵤ?

"14 тσσ, ∂σ уσυ нανє α ρнσηє?"

"ₙₒₜ ₐ ₚₑᵣₛₒₙₐₗ ₒₙₑ, ⱼᵤₛₜ ₐ ₕₒₘₑ ₚₕₒₙₑ"

"σн тнαт'ѕ ησ gσσ∂"

"?"

"ι ωσυℓ∂η'т ωαηηα ¢αℓℓ αη∂ нανє ѕσмєσηє σтнєя тнєη уσυ ρι¢к υρ, ρєσρℓє ωιℓℓ тнιηк ι'м ¢яαzу ιƒ ι αѕк 'ιѕ ∂σηкєу кσηg тнєяє?' тσтαℓу ємвαяαѕѕιηg"

"ₕᵤₕ, yₑₐₕ, ₜₕₐₜ ᵢₛ ₐ ₚᵣₒbₗₑₘ"

"Wₑ'ₗₗ ⱼᵤₛₜ ₕₐᵥₑ ₜₒ ₗᵢᵥₑ wᵢₜₕ ᵢₙₖ cₒₙₛₜₐₙₜₗy ₒₙ ₒᵤᵣ ₛₖᵢₙ"

"ᵢ cₐₙ ₗᵢᵥₑ wᵢₜₕ ₜₕₐₜ"

"ιƒ ι нανє тσ, ι ωιℓℓ тσ"

"ᵢ ₘₑₐₙ, yₒᵤ dₒₙ'ₜ ₕₐᵥₑ ₜₒ ₜₐₗₖ ₜₒ mₑ"

"вυт ι ωαηт тσ"

"ₐwₑ, ₜₕₐₜ'ₛ ₛₒ gₐy ♡"

"ι gυєѕѕ? αяє уσυ α gυу тσσ?"

"Wₕₐ₋ ₒₕ ᵣᵢgₕₜ, yₑₐₕ, ᵢ fₒᵣgₒₜ ₜₒ cₗₐᵣᵢfy"

"σк, gσσ∂ тσ кησω ι'ℓℓ вє ∂ιѕσωηє∂"

"Wₕₐₜ????? ᵢₛ yₒᵤᵣ fₐₘᵢₗy ₙₒₜ cₒₒₗ wᵢₜₕ ₜₕₐₜ ₖᵢₙd ₒf ₛₜᵤff?"

"ι∂к, вυт кησωιηg му ƒαтнєя, ρяσвαвℓу ησт"

"ₒₕ, wₑₗₗ ᵢf yₒᵤ ₙₑₑd ₐₙyₜₕᵢₙg, ᵢ'ₘ ₐ cₗᵢcₖ ₒf ₐ ₚₑₙ ₐwₐy"

"уєαн, ι кησω"

"ₐₙd ᵢf ₜₕᵢₙgₛ ₐᵣₑ ₛᵤₚₑᵣ bₐd, ᵢ cₒᵤₗd gₑₜ yₒᵤ ₒᵤₜₜₐ ₜₕₑᵣₑ, ₘy dₐd'ₛ ₐ ᵣₑₐₗₗy ₛᵤccₑₛₛfᵤₗ fₐₘᵢₗy ₗₐwyₑᵣ ₐₙd cₒᵤₗd ₘₐybₑ gₑₜ yₒᵤᵣ dₐd ₐᵣᵣₑₛₜₑd ᵢf wₑ ᵣₑₐₗₗy ₙₑₑdₑd ₜₒ"

"ι ∂συвт уσυ ¢συℓ∂, вυт тнαηкѕ ƒσя тнιηкιηg"

"ᵢ'ₘ ₛₑᵣᵢₒᵤₛ! ₕₑ'ₛ ₙₒₜ ₗᵢₖₑ ₐ b ᵤ ₛ ᵢ ᵥ ₑ ₖᵢₙd ₒf bₐd, ᵢₛ ₕₑ?"

...

"ησ ¢σммєηт"

"ₒₕ Gₒd, ₜₕₐₜ'ₛ ₕₒᵣᵣᵢbₗₑ"

"ιт'ѕ ƒιηє, ι gєт тнαт уσυ ¢αяє ¢αυѕє ωє'яє ѕσυℓмαтєѕ αη∂ тнαт'ѕ ωнαт ωєяє ѕυρρσѕє∂ тσ ∂σ вυт ι'м σкαу, яєαℓℓу"

"ₒₖ, fᵢₙₑ, ᵢf ᵢₜ gₑₜₛ ₛᵤₚₑᵣ bₐd ₜₕₑₙ ₜₑₗₗ ₘₑ ₐₙd ᵢ'ₗₗ bₑ yₒᵤᵣ ₖₙᵢgₕₜ ᵢₙ ₛₕᵢₙᵢₙg ₐᵣₘₒᵣ ₜₒ cₒₘₑ ᵣₑₛcᵤₑ yₒᵤ, gₒₜ ᵢₜ?"

"му нєяσ~"

"Yₒᵤ ₖₙₒw ᵢₜ ;)"

"ωнαтєνєя уσυ ѕαу ¢αѕαησνα ∂σηкєу кσηg"

"ₒₕ cₒₘₑ ₒₙ"

~~~ Time skip (they talk almost every day in between) ~~~

"ᵢ wᵢₛₕ ᵢ ₕₐd ₐ ₚₕₒₙₑ"

"ιѕ ¢σηѕтαηтℓу нανιηg тσ ωяιтє ση уσυя ѕкιη ѕтαятιηg тσ вσтнєя уσυ? ι вєт ι ¢συℓ∂ вυу уσυ α ρнσηє ιƒ уσυ яєαℓℓу ωαηтє∂"

"ₐᵣₑ yₒᵤ cᵣₐzy??? ₕₒw cₒᵤₗd yₒᵤ dₒ ₜₕₐₜ?"

"му ƒαмιℓу ιѕ ρяєтту ωєαℓтну"

"ⱼₑₛᵤₛ, ₜₐₗₖ ₐbₒᵤₜ ₛᵤgₐᵣ dₐddy"

"ѕυgαя ωнαт??"

"ₙₒₜₕᵢₙg"

"ₐₙd ᵢ dₒₙ'ₜ ₙₑₑd yₒᵤ ₜₒ bᵤy ₘₑ ₐ ₚₕₒₙₑ"

"ωну ∂σ уσυ ωαηт σηє αηуωαу?"

"Cₐᵤₛₑ ᵢ'ₘ fᵣₑₐₖᵢₙ ₛₕₐₖᵢₙg, cₐₙ'ₜ yₒᵤ ₜₑₗₗ?"

"ησт яєαℓℓу, уσυя нαη∂ωяιтιηg ιѕ αℓωαуѕ мєѕѕу"

"ₒₕ ₕₐᵣ ₕₐᵣ, ₛₕᵤₛₕ yₒᵤ"

"ωну αяє уσυ ѕнαкιηg?"

"ᵢ ⱼᵤₛₜ gₒₜ ₐ ₗₑₜₜₑᵣ fᵣₒₘ ₘy dᵣₑₐₘ ₛcₕₒₒₗ ₐₙd ᵢ'ₘ ₐfᵣₐᵢd ᵢ dᵢdₙₜ gₑₜ ᵢₙ ₐₙd ₜₕₑ ₐₙₜᵢcᵢₚₐₜᵢₒₙ ᵢₛ ₖᵢₗₗᵢₙg ₘₑ bᵤₜ ᵢ ₚᵣₒₘᵢₛₑd ₘy dₐd ᵢ wₒᵤₗdₙ'ₜ ₒₚₑₙ ᵢₜ wᵢₜₕₒᵤₜ ₕᵢₘ ₐₙd ᵢ'ₘₙₒₜₒₖₐyₚₗₑₐₛₑcₐₗₘₘₑdₒwₙ"

"σк, υн, ωнαт кιη∂ σƒ ѕ¢нσσℓ ιѕ ιт?"

"ₕₑᵣₒ ₛcₕₒₒₗ"

"σн, ι gυєѕѕ уσυ ωιℓℓ вє му нєяσ σηє ∂αу нυн?"

"ₒₙₗy ᵢf ᵢ gₒₜ ᵢₙ"

"ι'м ѕυяє уσυ ∂ι∂"

"ₕₒw dₒ yₒᵤ ₖₙₒw?"

"вє¢αυѕє уσυ'яє єχα¢тℓу ωнαт ι тнιηк α нєяσ ѕнσυℓ∂ вє"

"Yₒᵤ dₒ? Bᵤₜ yₒᵤ dₒₙ'ₜ ₗᵢₖₑ ₜₕᵢₙgₛ ₜₒₒ ₑₐₛy, wₑ dₒₙ'ₜ ₖₙₒw ₑₐcₕₒₜₕₑᵣ ₜₕₐₜ wₑₗₗ"

"ι кησω тнαт уσυ'яє ηι¢є αη∂ уσυ'яє ƒυηηу αη∂ уσυ ƒєєℓ вα∂ ωнєη σтнєяѕ αяє ℓєѕѕ ƒσятυηαтє αη∂ тнαт уσυ яєαℓℓу ωαηт тσ нєℓρ ρєσρℓє ωнєη тнєу ηєє∂ ιт"

"ᵢ gᵤₑₛₛ, bᵤₜ₋"

"тнαт'ѕ єχα¢тℓу ωнαт ι'∂ ωαηт ƒяσм ѕσмєσηє яєѕ¢υιηg мє ƒяσм, ѕαу, му ∂συ¢нє σƒ α ƒαтнєя"

"ₕₐₕ, ᵣᵢgₕₜ"

ι'м αℓωαуѕ яιgнт"

"ᵢ ₖₙₒw, ₜₕₐₙₖ yₒᵤ, ᵢ ᵣₑₐₗₗy ₙₑₑdₑd ₜₕₐₜ"

"αηутιмє"

"ᵣᵢgₕₜ, ᵢ'ₘ gₒₙₙₐ gₒ ₜₐₖₑ ₐ ₙₐₚ, ₛₜᵣₑₛₛ ᵢₛ bₐd fₒᵣ ₜₕₑ bₐby"

"ωнαт вαву???"

"ₘₑ, ᵢ'ₘ ₜₕₑ bₐby ;₋;"

"σн нαнα, уσυ gσ ∂σ тнαт"

"ᵢ'ₗₗ wᵣᵢₜₑ ₗₐₜₑᵣ"

"σк, тєℓℓ мє ιƒ уσυ gσт ιη"

"ᵢ wᵢₗₗ"

~~~

"ᵢ dᵢd ᵢₜ"

"нυн?"

"ᵢ gₒₜ ᵢₙ"

"тнαт'ѕ gяєαт!"

"ᵢ'ₘ fᵣₑₐₖᵢₙ cᵣyᵢₙg, ₕₒₗy cᵣₐₚ"

"ι'м ѕσ нαρρу ƒσя уσυ"

"ₜₕₐₙₖ yₒᵤ"

"ₒₒₒₒ! ᵢ bₑₜ ₜₕᵢₛ'ₗₗ bₑ ₕₒw wₑ ₘₑₑₜ, yₒᵤ'ₗₗ bₑ ₛₒₘₑ ₛₒᵣₜ ₒf ₕₒₛₜₐgₑ ₐₙd ᵢ'ₗₗ cₒₘₑ ₛₐᵥₑ yₒᵤ"

"нммм, ι ∂συвт тнαт"

"Wₕy???"

"ι'м gσιηg тσ α нєяσ ѕ¢нσσℓ тσσ"

"ₜₕₐₜ'ₛ ₑᵥₑₙ bₑₜₜₑᵣ! Wₑ cₐₙ wₐₜcₕ ₑₐcₕₒₜₕₑᵣ'ₛ bₐcₖₛ ᵢₙ cₒₘbₐₜ! Wₕₐₜ ₛcₕₒₒₗ ₐᵣₑ yₒᵤ gₒᵢₙg ₜₒ"

"тнαт'ѕ тσσ єαѕу"

"ₑᵥₑᵣyₜₕᵢₙg ᵢₛ ₜₒₒ ₑₐₛy fₒᵣ yₒᵤ ᵢₛₙₜ ᵢₜ?"

"уєα, ι ℓιкє муѕєℓƒ α ¢нαℓℓєηgє"

"Fᵢₙₑ, bᵤₜ ᵢf wₑ gₒ ₜₒ ᵣᵢᵥₐₗ ₛcₕₒₒₗₛ ₐₙd wₑᵣₑ ₚᵢₜ ₒff ₒₙ ₑₐcₕ ₒₜₕₑᵣ, ᵢ wₒₙ'ₜ bₑ ₛₒᵣᵣy ᵢf ᵢ ₚᵤₙcₕ yₒᵤᵣ ₜₑₑₜₕ ᵢₙ"

"ι'ℓℓ кєєρ тнαт ιη мιη∂ тнє ηєχт тιмє ι gєт ¢ℓσ¢кє∂ ιη тнє ƒα¢є"

"Gₒₒd ♡"

"ι'м яєαℓℓу нαρρу уσυ gσт ιη, вυт тσ∂αу нα∂ вєєη α ℓσηg ∂αу ѕσ ι'м gσιηg тσ вє∂"

"ₒₖ, ₛwₑₑₜ dᵣₑₐₘₛ"

"ηιgнт"

~~~ First Day of School ~~~

Okay, calm yourself down Shouto, what are the odds of him being in the same school, let alone the same class? There are plenty of hero schools out there and U.A is notoriously hard to get into, seriously, what are the odds? Who am I kidding, pretty much every kid that wants to be a hero want's to go to U.A, your soulmate's dream school being anything but U.A is just laughable.

Shouto sat silently in the back of the classroom, watching his classmates mingle and internally screaming at himself "OH MY GOD LITERALLY ANY GUY HERE COULD BE YOUR SOULMATE". Of course, he didn't really know anyone's names yet aside from the Iida kid that he had met briefly before through his father, but he really hoped that this wasn't the way he met his soulmate officially. In a crowded classroom with a bunch of people that you'll be spending the next three years with was not the ideal environment. And if he DID meet them right now, he didnt wanna know.

"Hi there," Shouto almost jumped at suddenly being addressed but remained stubbornly stone faced as he turned to the person who spoke.

There stood a tall young female, not too much shorter then Shouto himself, with black hair pulled back into a pony tail. She smiled kindly down at him and he felt guilty for not knowing what to do since she seemed so nice and sociable.

"Hi," she said again, her smile somehow looking even more welcoming and kind as the seconds rolled by. "My name is Momo Yaoyorozu, I was let into U.A through recommendation and I saw you there during the evaluation, I assume you got in through the same means, yes?" She- Momo, asked.

Shouto responded with a curt nod and a low, quiet "yes", awkwardly and was fed up with his own inability to converse with anyone.

Momo, bless her, seemed to immediately understand Shouto's inexperience with social interaction and quickly changed her approach to compensate. "What's your name?" She asked gently.

"Shouto Todoroki," he said witheringly, knowing exactly what the next thing she would say was.

Instead it wasn't.

The two of them just looked at eachother for a moment, silently communicating "I realize who your father is and I'm not going to say anything" and "good, I despise him anyway" and Shouto could have cried out in appreciation at her compassion.

"Nice to meet you Todoroki-kun, I look forward to getting to know you better," Momo said outloud, still smiling kindly. "Talk to me anytime," she added, placing down an unnecessarily professional looking card with her name and, presumably, her phone number.

~~~

Shouto hadn't meant to be so closed off, it just sorta... happened.

He had formed a solid acquaintanceship with Yaoyorozu and remembered the quirks and last names of all his classmates, but thats about it. He didn't talk to anyone unless directly spoken to, he didn't hang out with his classmates nor did he try to establish a closer relationship with any of them, and he was left pretty much alone for the most part. And it wasn't just the fact that he didn't want to meet his soulmate yet, though that was definitely a big thing, but he was just really bad with people and the way that he was brought up wasn't helping in any way.

So, speaking of soulmates, if Shouto had any doubts of what school his soulmate went to, they were immediately eradicated when his soulmate wrote to him about encountering real villains so soon on the same day as the U.S.J incident. Of course, the way D. K talked about the event was very vague as he never said anything about encountering them directly (so he could potentially be in class 1B) but news on the event didn't surface until nearly 24 hours after his soulmate said something, so it was safe to assume he was at least went to U.A, if not in the same class.

Perfect...

~~~

Shouto found out exactly who his soulmate was after Bakugou was kidnapped and then promptly rescued. 

Bakugou's kidnapping was quickly broadcasted for everyone to know, but his rescue wasn't reported nearly as hastily (slightly over shadowed by all might's huge battle and retirement), so when Shouto had this conversation with his soulmate it was obvious:

"ₕₑy dᵤdₑ"

"нι, ιт'ѕ вєєη α ωнιℓє"

"Yₑₐ, ᵤ ₖₙₒw ₜₕₐₜ gᵤy Bₐₖᵤgₒᵤ ₜₕₐₜ gₒₜ ₖᵢdₙₐₚₚₑd?"

"уєα"

"ₕₑ gₒₜ ᵣₑₛcᵤₑd ᵢₙ ₜₕₑ wᵣₑcₖ ₒf ₖₐₘᵢₙₒ ₗₐₛₜ ₙᵢgₕₜ"

Act oblivious Shouto.

"яєαℓℓу? ι нα∂η'т ѕєєη αηу ηєωѕ ση тнαт"

"Yₑₐ, ᵢₜ'ₛ ₚᵣₒbₐbₗy ₙₒₜ cₒᵥₑᵣₑd yₑₜ"

"тнєη нσω ∂ι∂ уσυ кησω?"

"ₐ bᵤₙcₕ ₒf ₘy cₗₐₛₛₘₐₜₑₛ wₑₙₜ ₜₒ ᵣₑₛcᵤₑ ₕᵢₘ"

"σн gσσ∂ηєѕѕ. уσυ ∂ι∂η'т, ∂ι∂ уσυ??? αяє уσυ σкαу?"

"Yₑₐ, ᵢ'ₘ fᵢₙₑ, ᵢ dᵢdₙ'ₜ gₒ bᵤₜ ᵢ ₖᵢₙdₐ wᵢₛₕ ᵢ dᵢd"

"ωну?? ∂ι∂ уσυ ѕєє ωнαт нαρρєηє∂ ιη кαмιησ, ωну ωσυℓ∂ уσυ ωαηηα вє ηєαя тнαт?"

"Bₑcₐᵤₛₑ ᵢ fₑₗₜ ₛₒ ᵤₛₑₗₑₛₛ ₜₕₑ ₙᵢgₕₜ ᵢₜ ₛₜₐᵣₜₑd, ᵢ wₐₛ ₖₑₚₜ ᵢₙdₒₒᵣₛ ₐₙd ₑᵥₑₙ ᵢf ᵢ wₐₛ ₒᵤₜₛᵢdₑ ₜₒ fᵢgₕₜ, ᵢ wₒᵤₗd'ᵥₑ ₚᵣₒbₐbₗy bₑₑₙ ₜₒₒ cₕᵢcₖₑₙ ₜₒ dₒ ₐₙyₜₕᵢₙg"

"ι'м ѕυяє уσυ ωσυℓ∂ нανє ∂σηє gяєαт gινєη тнє ¢нαη¢є"

"ᵢ wₐₛ gᵢᵥₑₙ ₜₕₑ cₕₐₙcₑ!!"

"ₘy fᵣᵢₑₙdₛ wₑₙₜ ₒᵤₜ ₐₙd ₚᵤₜ ₜₕₑₘₛₑₗᵥₑₛ ᵣᵢgₕₜ ᵢₙ ₜₕₑ ₘᵢddₗₑ ₒf ᵢₜ ₐₙd ᵢ dᵢdₙₜ ₛₜₒₚ ₒᵣ gₒ wᵢₜₕ ₜₕₑₘ"

"ι'м ѕυяє ιт'ѕ вєттєя тнαт уσυ ∂ι∂η'т, ι'∂ нαтє ƒσя уσυ тσ ∂ιє вєƒσяє ι мєт уσυ"

"Yₑₐ"

"ᵢ'ₘ gₒₙₙₐ ₛₗₑₑₚ, ₜₕₑₛₑ ₚₐₛₜ wₑₑₖₛ ₕₐᵥₑ bₑₑₙ ₑₓₕₐᵤₛₜᵢₙg"

"σк, ѕℓєєρ ωєℓℓ"

"♡"

"ₙₒ ₚᵣₒₘᵢₛₑₛ"

The moment Shouto was sure his soulmate wasn't going to write again, he frantically texted Momo so that he could come over, it wasn't too late in the day so she agreed and he practically teleported to the front gates of her home with how fast he got there.

"Shouto!" Yaoyorozu exclaimed as he was escorted into her room by one of the house staff. "How did you get here do fast?" She asked grabbing his arm and pulling him through her towering doorway. 

"I walked?" He offered, shrugging and anxiously playing with the hem of the turtleneck he was wearing.

"I find that hard to believe," she said disapprovingly, crossing her arms and looking at sternly at him.

Shouto shifted uncomfortably under her gaze. "Listen, it really doesn't matter and I have no idea to be honest, I just need someone to talk to," 

Yaomomo's gaze softened and relaxed her stance. "Right..." she led him over to her bed and they both sank into the mattress as they sat on it. "I'm sorry, what was it you wanted to talk about, you usually go to Midoriya for things like that,"

"Yeah, but I thought it would be easier to talk to you about this," Shouto said quietly, looking down and picking at the dead skin on his fingers.

Yaomomo gently took his hands in hers to keep him from hurting himself and smiled warmly. "What is it Todoroki?"

"I think I know who my soulmate is, but I'm not sure,"

There was a split second where Momo looked shocked before her face practically split in two with a smile. "That's amazing, I'm happy for you,"

"Thanks but I need you to help me confirm whether I'm right or not-"

"Of course!" Momo said happily. "What do need?"

"Is there anyone in class B with the initials D. K?" Shouto asked, playing with the hem of his shirt again.

"Hmm, no, I don't think so," Momo hummed, putting a hand on her chin. "The only person I know with those initials is-"

"Kaminari, I know," Shouto nodded. "I was just making sure,"

"Ok, what does that have to do with-" Momo suddenly had a look of realization and wipped her head to look at Shouto. "Is Kaminari-"

"Yeah," he nodded more. "At least, I'm 95% sure he's my soulmate,"

"And the other 5%?"

"I don't know, I just don't wanna be arrogant and say 100%"

~

Living in the same building as Kaminari without the other's knowledge of their connection was very difficult for Shouto. Obviously, it wasn't bad, waking up every morning and getting a glimpse of Kaminari's arguably adorable bedhead was one of the greatest joys in life, but still. 

He had no way to bring it up.

Todoroki had thought multiple times of just drawing cat noses or dicks on his face and watch it appear on Kaminari's face too but he really didn't want to do that. Not just because he didn't want to have stuff written on his own face but because it felt way too public. Anyone could see it, recognize what it was and for a first encounter as soulmates, he didn't want that.

He'd find another way.

One of Shouto's favorite things about living in the dorms though was by far seeing Kaminari write to him in real time. He was usually spacey at the best of times, focusing on two or possibly even three things at a time, but when writing to his soulmate (Todoroki himself) nothing was around him except his own wrist and an impending reply. He loved watching Denki light up, laugh, cringe, sigh at whatever he wrote to him and since Kaminari was so focused on his wrist and soulmate, he never saw Shouto watching him and writing back to him from across the room.

Todoroki also really liked watching Denki interact with his friends.

About three days into living in the dorms, Kaminari had passed out on the common room's sofa and the rest of his friends (the "bakusquad"), sans Bakugou who was just watching from the sidelines, decided to draw on his poor unassuming, sleeping face. Before Shouto even realised what they were doing though, Sero was already seconds away from drawing all over Denki. Todoroki didn't even have a chance to try and stop them when Kaminari jolted awake and instinctively punched Sero in the chest who stumbled backward into Bakugou.

There was a tense, still silence that lasted about ten seconds as they all stared at Bakugou who, after a moment, slowly straightened. He plucked the marker out of Sero's hand and glowered at Kaminari who broke the silence by screaming, causing everyone to spring into action.

One of the first to move were Ashido and Sero, getting their distance from the impending chaos their friends were stiring. Next was Kaminari who catapulted himself over the back of the couch to avoid Bakugou who was the next to move and pounce to draw on Denki's face despite the fact that he was awake and very aware of his plan. The last to move was Kirishima who had a barely delayed reaction as he maneuvered to stop Bakugou from potentially murdering his friends.

The roughly two minute wild goose chase between Kaminari, Bakugou, and Kirishima felt much longer to the observers of it and got boring quickly until Bakugou actually got a hold of the back of Kaminari's shirt, allowing him to drag him into a better grip and position do draw on his face.

"Noo!" Denki cried, thrashing around in Bakugou's grip.

"Hold still dunce face, this is your own fault," Bakugou growled, surprisingly having a hard time actually getting the marker close to the other's face.

This is the time Kirishima actually got a chance to effectively intervene as he attempted to put himself between the two of them. "Okay guys, that's quite-"

"You'll ruin his perfect face!" Kaminari wailed louder, thrashing even harder and not even noticing Kirishima's attempt at helping him.

"Don't you mean your face?" Ashido asked, stifling a giggle behind her hand as she stood next to Sero who was shamelessly bent over cackling at the predicament.

"No, my soulmate's," Denki pouted, looking over at her over Bakugou's shoulder who was confused enough by his answer that he paused for a second. A second, however, was all it took for Kirishima to swiftly seize the marker from Bakugou's grip, snap the cap back on it, and throw it over his shoulder and into the void.

"What do you mean 'your soulmate'?" Kirishima asked, attempting to release Kaminari's shirt from Bakugou's balled fist.

"I- oof" Kaminari fell to the ground as Bakugou let go of him and he started to smooth out the front of his shirt. "I have a type of soul mark that whatever is written on my skin, it shows up on my soulmate too," he explained.

"Oo! I've heard of that one! It's not very common though," Mina exclaimed, bouncing over to them, Sero following close behind her.

"I know! I had never even heard of it until he wrote to me out of the blue one day," Kaminari said excitedly.

"He? Do you know who it is?" Kirishima asked, obviously intrigued by the knew information.

"Nope, he's super secretive, it's kinda hot," he laughed. "He doesn't want it to be too easy to find eachother so all I really know is that he's a guy, he goes to a hero school, and his dad is a total douche bag," 

Todoroki tried not to laugh from where was listening on the other side of the room. 'glad to know that THAT'S what he remembers' he thought amusedly to himself, Shouto's thoughts were interrupted however, by Sero talking. 

"I thought you were straight-"

"If you don't know him, why are you so worried about his 'perfect face' when you don't even know what he looke like," Bakugou grumbled, not even acknowledging Sero.

"Uh, duh, it's my soulmate," Kaminari said, as if it were obvious. "Of course he's gonna be perfect,"

"And if he's not?" Kirishima questioned.

"Not what? He's my soulmate so it doesn't matter, everything about him is going do be perfect and if society considers him ugly then society can kiss my ass," Kaminari states before sticking his tongue out at "society", saying it as if it were well known facts.

"Awwe, Kami, that's so noble~," Ashido swoons. "And I agree, the only ugly person out there is Mineta cause I'm, like, 99% sure he doesn't even have a soulmate anyway,"

"Okay, that's not fair, he's legiterally 3 ft tall," Kaminari chastised playfully.

Kirishima suddenly wheezed out a laugh. "Legiterally!?" He practically screeched. 

"Hush,"

Todoroki didn't stay for the rest of the conversation but he was definitely a blushing mess by the time he left. Denki hadn't been out right talking about Shouto, but he technically was and it was a very, heartmeltingly sweet sentiment to share and definitely something nice to overhear as the person that's being talked about. Now, Shouto obviously didn't know Kaminari's thoughts on his scar, nor did he know what the blonde's opinion on his appearance in total was, like, at all but hearing that he'd be 'perfect' no matter what by someone so universally special nearly brought Shouto to tears. Todoroki made it up to room and flopped down onto his bed as he tried to calm himself down, desperately trying to think of the best way to finally just TELL Kaminari about their connection without it being either overly cheesey and/or superbly awkward.

~

"Ooooo, you found your soulmate?!? Since when??!" Ochako practically shrieked as she joined them (Todoroki himself, Midoriya, and iida) at their lunch table.

"Yeah," Shouto responded plainly, picking up a piece broccoli and placing it into his mouth.

"Forgive me, but what was your soulmate connection again Todoroki-kun? I've forgotten," Iida asked politely.

Todoroki swallowed slowly. "...whatever I write on my skin appears on my soulmate too,"

"Cool!" Izuku clapped. "I've never met anyone with that kind of connection,"

"Yeah!" Ochako joined in. "That's pretty rare,"

"It is," Shouto nodded. "It also took a while for me to realize what my soulmark was, I spent most of my life believing that I didn't have anyone," he said in his usual bland tone, only revealing a hint of sadness behind it. He pretended not to notice his friends exchanging worried looks as he opted to focus on his food.

"But you know now," Ochako said cheerfully. "That's all that matters,"

Shouto let a faint smile slip onto his face. "Yeah, I guess I'm pretty happy about that" he agreed softly.

"How long have you known who it is?" Midoriya asked kindly.

"About a month or two," Shouto replied simply.

"Weeeellllll," Uraraka drawled, leaning across the table with a mischievous grin on her face. "Who is it?"

Shouto paused and slowly looked up at her and tilted his head in question. "Who is it?" He echoed.

"You did say you knew who it was did you not?" Iida asked, also tilting his head.

"Yes, I guess I did say that didn't I?" Shouto confirmed, sighing slightly. 

"Well??" Ochako pressed further, practically bouncing with excitement.

"You're smart," Shouto said, looking over at Midoriya who looked shocked at suddenly being addressed. "I'm sure you guys will figure it out," and with that, he stood up and walked away.

A few seconds later, he heard Uraraka behind him yell 'oh come on!' and he couldn't help that smile that bloomed on his face. As Shouto walked away from his friends at their table, he passed the self proclaimed "Bakusquad" which included Kaminari. He apparently caught Denki's eye because he waved at Shouto and was clearly caught off guard as Shouto returned the gesture.

Kaminari paused mid wave, startled, he must've thought Shouto would probably just glance at him or nod in acknowledgment but being waved at in turn obviously threw him for a loop. A blush quickly spread across his face and he turned away from Todoroki to lean in and whisper something to Ashido, who was sitting next to him. She quickly whipped her head around to look at Shouto, who still had his hand up from waving, she grinned mischievously before turning back to Kaminari and whispering fervently back.

Shouto left that, albeit short, interaction rather and understandably confused and with two main questions; what just happened and why?

He found out why a few days later.

Uraraka slammed her food tray down on the the table as she looked around the table with determination in her eyes and a smile faintly on her her lips. Midoriya shifted uncomfortably under her gaze.

"Is there- uh- some thing you want-" He, Izuku, was promptly interrupted by her practically exploding with excitement.

"I just found out something interesting," She said proudly.

"Interesting?" Iida echoed.

"Well, yeah, I was talking with Mina, oh and Jirou, and Sero, and Kirishima was there too, Kaminari was there near the end of the conversation, oh, and Bakugou was technically there but you know him. He might as well not have been there but of course I never said that-"

"Do you have a point Uraraka?" Shouto interrupted, rather irritable after staying up half the night writing to his soulma- to Kaminari.

"Right," she shook her head to gather her thoughts. "Long story short, Kaminari has a crush," 

Shouto froze, all of them were looking at her but none of them were shocked. Midoriya and Iida (and most of the class for that matter) were very use to Kaminari flirting with almost everyone he comes into contact with so the fact that he actually had feelings for someone wasn't the biggest surprise. Todoroki on the other hand felt rather hurt. Knowing your soulmate liked someone just stung and hearing from a second person didn't help.

Shouto swallowed thickly. "Like? A real one?" He asked meekly, silently hoping it was a joke.

"Of course a real one silly!" Ochako giggled. "But he was real defensive like," she paused, grabbed an eyeliner pencil out of nowhere, drew a lightning bolt on her forehead (on the wrong side, Shouto mused) and continued. "Like "dude, I'm not gonna meet my soulmate any time soon so like, i might as well get some dating experience before hand man" not that he actually plans on telling the guy about his feelings but whatever,"

The logic was pretty sound, it was obvious Kaminari had no idea who his soulmate was judging by the "not any time soon" comment and neither of them DID have any dating experience. He obviously didn't like the idea of seeing his soulmate date another of of his classmates for however long that goes on but he understood the logic behind it.

"Who is it?" Midoriya asked, snapping Shouto back to the conversation in front of him.

"Hm?" Uraraka hummed in question, slowly chewing the food in her mouth.

"I believe he wants to know who Kaminari has a crush on," Iida clarified, glancing at Midoriya for conformation and getting a nod in response.

She swallowed. "Oh! Its Todoroki!"

Shouto suddenly had three sets of eyes on him. Not that he cared, he was too busy feeling relieved that Kaminari liked him and not anyone else.

"Oh," Shouto said, trying not to let his face break out into a smile at the news and succeeding just barely.

"Oh?" Ochako repeated heatedly. "That's all you have to say?"

"Uh," Shouto glanced at Midoriya for help but he just shrugged and he and Iida looked away and at the 'bakusquad' table. "Good for him?" He offered, looking back at her. Uraraka just glared at him across the table and Midoriya graciously interjected to save him. 

"What were you hoping for Ochako?" He asked tentatively. "Todoroki isn't really the type of person to..." he trailed off as he spared a glance at Shouto and opted not to outright offend him in anyway.

"Fine," Todoroki said, standing up and turning towards the direction of the table Kaminari was sitting at. "I'll go talk to him,"

"Nononono!" Uraraka squawked, jumping over the table to take him to the ground but missing as he moved out of the way and she just face planted onto the ground.

Shouto hovered by her side, just looking down at her and making no move to help her, the display effectively stopping his pursuit. "Are you alright?" He asked vaguely, not exactly feeling empathetic toward her at the moment.

"Yeah," she groaned, sitting up and holding her nose. "I'm okay,"

"That's good, now if you'll excuse me," Todoroki then did a full 160° turn toward Kaminari and the people he was sitting with but was stopped again by Uraraka suddenly wrapping her arms around his middle in attempt to stop him or at the very least slow him down. This failed however and all that she ended up accomplishing was being dragged around the cafeteria.

He opted not to speak to Kaminari with a girl literally hanging off him and instead waited for a better time to admit that he liked him too and that they were, in fact, soulmates.

~

The opportunity to mention it came a few days later when most of everyone was down in the common room doing somthing or other and Kaminari, Sero, Ashido, and Kirishima were all arguing with one another.

"Pah! Lease!" Kirishima scoffed just as Todoroki passed but and he paused to listen on on the conversation. "If any of us are Kaminari's best friend, it's me," Kirishima said confidently.

"nuh uh!" Ashido argued childishly. "He and I are! We're gossip buddies,"

"Everyone's your gossip buddy, Mina," Sero told her. "Plus, I'm his best friend, we share memes,"

"That's not what qualifies the best friend title," Kirishima said before rounding on Kaminari. "Who do you say us your best friend?"

"I- uh-" Kaminari stammered at suddenly being consulted. "This isn't fair, you're all my best friends,"

"Nope, not good enough," Sero shook his head.

"What about you Bakugou?" Mina questioned the blonde who had been odly silent the whole debate. "You're not gonna argue for Kami's hand?"

"Hah?" Bakugou questioned, looking up from his phone and glowering at them. "Why would I want to be dunce face's friend?"

"The thrill?" Kaminari offered, wiggling his eyebrows suggestively.

"Fuck off," Bakugou gowled, throwing a pillow at him which sent most of them into giggles.

Todoroki was about to walk away when something that was said caught his attention.

"I've got it! Whoever knows me the best can be my best friend," Kaminari declared and Todoroki smiled to himself.

He definitely knew the most about Kaminari since he tended to overshare. A lot. Despite Shouto's persistence that they not share too much about themselves, it didn't really work since all Kaminari didn't tell him was his name, what school he went to, and where he lived. Denki told Shouto everything so he knew a lot about Kaminari that, without knowing they were soulmates, would look extremely creepy and stalkerish.

"How would we know who knows the most?" Ashido asked and Todoroki didn't even have to wait for the answer to know that Kaminari had in mind.

"We'll play a game!" Kaminari said, pulling seven white borads out of thin air along with markers to go with them. "I play it all the time during family events,"

"Alright!" Kirishima cheered, pumping his fist excitedly. "You gonna play too Bakubro?"

He scoffed. "Why would I do that?"

"You're right," Kaminari admitted solemnly, before breaking out into a mischievous grin. "There's no way you would win anyway," he shrugged and like lightning(heh) Bakugou snatched a whiteboard and marker away from him and growled.

"Fuck you I won't win, I'll wipe the floor with friendship!" Bakugou yelled. "How do we play?!"

"That's the spirit!" Kaminari cheered as he handed the rest of his friends a board of their own. After that he had three more left over and he hummed to himself. "We normally have five players but....."

That was his cue.

"I'll play," Todoroki chimed, walking around the couch, sitting next to Kaminari, and taking a board out if his hands.

The whole group looked at him in shock, staring really, except Bakugou who was just stubbornly glaring at him. Todoroki decided to pretend not to notice, instead checking the integrity of the marker he was using and how easily he could clean the board. That way, he was just overhearing the whispered conversation the others didn't think he was paying attention to.

"What was that?"

"Did he hear what the game was about?"

"I'm sure he doesn't expect to win, he's just filling out the five player slot,"

"Do you think Uraraka told him? About what we talked about the other day?"

"Nooo, she wouldn't!"

"Of course she fucking would, who do you think we're talking about here?"

"Ooo! Kami! Maybe this is his way of showing he likes you back! Let him play! Let him play!"

"Midoribro!" Kirishima called out all of a sudden as the green haired boy walked by, the first to break the conversation of whispers. "Wanna be points keeper for the game we're playing?"

"Uhh," Midoriya paused mid step and glanced at Bakugou who practically growled back at him. "I'd love to but I really don't know,"

"Come sit next to me Midoriya," Todoroki said, deciding then was a good time to stop pretending he wasn't listening and patting the seat next to him.

Izuku looked at him in bewilderment, obviously just now realizing that Todoroki was also sitting with the group. "Oh- okay..." Midoriya sat down next to him, desperately avoiding eye contact with Bakugou, and took a whiteboard that was handed to him by Kaminari.

"What are you playing?" Midoriya asked, mainly directed at Todoroki so that's who answered.

"I don't know yet, I think Kaminari was about to explain it," Todoroki said simply, directing his attention to the electric blonde who blushed at the sudden attention.

"Yes!" He yelped, shooting up from the couch, whiteboard in hand and and ready to explain. "The rules are simple, whomever has the most points by the end of the game wins,"

"Obviously," Bakugou snarled. "How do we gain the points dumbass?"

"I wasn't finished yet!" Kaminari retorted, sticking his tongue out at him and Todoroki could feel Midoriya tense next to him. "You get points by answering questions correctly, there are three rounds and three questions in each round, the difficulty of the questions increases per round and so does point value," He explained. "Round one questions are worth one point, round two questions are worth two points, and round three questions are worth three points, who ever wins is dubbed my best friend, got it?"

"Got it," they all said unanimously.

Sero sighed and fell into leaning on Ashido's shoulder. "I hate trivia games," he whined but no one seemed to notice.

Midoriya leaned over to Todoroki and whispered. "Why are you playing with them?"

"They needed an extra player," Todoroki said simply.

"That's... all?" Midoriya asked skeptically.

"Yes," Todoroki said, stubbornly looking forward at Kaminari, not meeting the freckled boy.

"Not at all because you know that he..." Midoriya lowered his voice even more. "Likes you?"

"Not at all," Todoroki hummed, subtly hiding a small smile as he watched Kaminari fidget in front of them. He could tell Midoriya wanted to press further, but he didn't get the chance. 

"Midoriya, you ready?" Kaminari asked.

"Uh- yep!" Midoriya squeaked, caught of guard by suddenly being addressed but turning his board around to show all five participating members' names written on it, waiting for tally marks to go along with them.

"Perfect!" Kaminari cheered, clapping his hands together. "First question, what's my favourite colour?"

All five players immediately proceeded to write their answers down but right before Todoroki did, he paused. He knew the answer, obviously, Kaminari overshares everything, whether it's important or not, but still Todoroki doubted himself for a moment before he wrote it down.

"Is everyone's answers down?" Kaminari asked, getting various responses of agreement. "Great, everyone flip your boards around at the same time in three... two... one!"

They all flipped their boards around to face him, Todoroki glanced at the others' and then internally cringed as he saw their answers. They were all the same except his own and the four of them all looked confident in their answer which only made him more self conscious about his answers.

[Aaaaaaaaand that's kinda where I lost all my motivation for that, sorry if you were stating to like it]


	4. Chapter 4

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> This is a thing I did for KamiDeku week last year but never finished it, the prompt was "long distance  
> 1,777 words

"You're being catfished," Bakugou grumbled as he slid a few pancakes onto his roommate's plate.

"Am not!" Kaminari argued, angrily stabbing his pancakes and shoving way too much of it into his mouth.

"You totally are," Bakugou argued back, turning off the stove and leaning against the counter.

"Yawn~ what are you guys fighting about so early?" Kirishima asked as he walked into the kitchen and made his way over to his boyfriend, wrapping his arms around his waist and burying his face in the crook of the other's neck.

Bakugou almost immediately leaned into the touch and wrapped his arms around the red head in turn. "Just about how your best friend is being catfished," He mumbled.

"You're what!?" Kirishima demanded, whipping around to look at his friend at the kitchen table, his boyfriend whining at the sudden lack of attention.

"I'm no-" Kaminari started but was cut off by himself choking on his mouth full of food.

Kirishima untangled himself from Bakugou, much to the other's dismay, and made his way over to thump his friend on the back. "Woah dude, chew your food!"

Kaminari swallowed thickly. "Oh, like you don't know anything about choking," he coughed. "Do you guys forget you have a roommate when you decide to fuck or do you just not care?"

Bakugou laughed loudly from the side. "I don't give a f-"

"Hush up, both of you, not the time," Kirishima said, looking between the two with a steely gaze. "What's this about bring catfished?" He asked.

"I'm not being catfished," Kaminari said grumpily, stabbing his pancakes again but this time taking a considerably smaller bite.

"You definitely are," Bakugou shot back. "Tell this red haired idiot exactly what you told me and he'll agree,"

"He always agrees with you! You're his boyfriend!" Kaminari yelled an argument.

"I disagree with Katsuki all the time," Kirishima states plainly. "Just because you're usually wrong so I almost never agree with you has nothing to do with favouritism, now tell me the deets," he grinned.

Kaminari huffed. "Well, he's really sweet, a tad bit reckless, absolutely adorable, I'm head over heels in love with him-"

"The important stuff, dumbass," Bakugou grumbled.

Kaminari let out an annoyed sigh. "Buuut, we almost never share phone calls and I've never had a video chat with his and theres always the chance that the photos of him are just taken off the internet," he glanced back at Kirishima who was cringing at the news. "Oh come on!" Kaminari yelled prematurely.

"Sorry bro," Kirishima sighed, shaking his head. "It sounds pretty suspicious, I'm with Katsuki on this one," he said, quirking his head in his boyfriend's direction.

"Of course you do," Kaminari grumbled, pulling out his phone and scrolling through it, blocking out everything as the other two talked next to him.

About a minute into scrolling, however, Kaminari received the most exciting and well timed notification in his life.

 **Brocc-star** : I'm going to be in Naruhata next week, that's where you live right?

 **Electric-hoebag** : i- yeah

 **Electric-hoebag** : wait, does this mean I finally get to meet you????

 **Brocc-star** : Haha, hopefully, if I'm not too busy when I'm there

 **Electric-hoebag** : you can't make time for me? I'm hurt

 **Brocc-star** : I'm a busy man, why should you get special treatment?

 **Electric-hoebag** : because I'm your boyfriend in waiting?

 **Brocc-star** : you're not my boyfriend until we meet

 **Electric-hoebag** : which is EXACTLY why you should take the time to see me, I need to kiss every single one of your oddly placed freckles that I'm still not convinced are natural

 **Brocc-star** : you'll just have to see for yourself

 **Brocc-star** : my mom isn't exactly sold on the fact your not a catfish

 **Electric-hoebag** : my roommates are the same, though you're definitely the suspicious one here since you're the one who doesn't like phone calls and stuff.

 **Brocc-star** : I know, sorry, and I told her that the only reason why we don't call was because of me not because of you but she's still not convinced

 **Electric-hoebag** : well just have to prove them wrong when we meet in person pretty please?

 **Brocc-star** : All of your pleases are pretty, and I'll do everything in my power to be able to spent time with you

 **Electric-hoebag** : YESSSS!!

 **Brocc-star** : Haha, I gotta go to work right now if you wanna see me later though, talk to you later buttface

 **Electric-hoebag** : ttyl shithead ♡

"Oi, what are you grinning at dunce face?" Bakugou asked, getting Kaminari to look up from his phone to see see both of his friends looking at him curiously, though Bakugou looked more annoyed then actually curious about whatever Kaminari was doing.

"He's coming into town next week," Denki replied immediately, cutting to the chase and a grin spreading wide across his face.

"Oh! Great, then you'll get to meet him!" Kirishima cheered.

"If he's real," Bakugou grumbled but Kaminari wasn't paying attention, grinning dumbly at his phone and daydreaming about what it will be like talking to Izuku in person.

-

"Mooom," Midoriya whined as his mother, Inko, dragged him along with her into another store.

"What is it?" She asked innocently, picking up a cute figurine from the display to examine it closer. 

"I came here for work, you really didn't need to come along," Izuku said, casually hinting something.

"Nonsense!" Inko chirped happily, placing the figurine back and turning to her son. "Naruhata was well over due for a visit, this was a perfect excuse,"

"But this is my only day off this month," Izuku pleaded with her.

"What? And you don't want to spend time with your mother?" Inko asked, placing a hand over her heart in mock offence.

"Mom, I LIVE with you, I spend almost all my spare time with you! I was going to do something today," he practically begged.

"Nuh uh," Inko shock her head. "I know exactly what you want to do and I won't allow it," she said, poking Izuku hard in the chest.

"Huh? What do you mean?" He questioned.

"You wanna meet with that internet boy and I'm doing everything in my power to prevent it"

"What!? Why?" Izuku asked incredulously.

"Because I don't want you getting drugged and abducted," Inko stated simply, smacking her son on the arm lightly to drive the point home.

"I'm not going to be abducted, I can handle myself," he grumbled, rubbing the spot on his arm where he was hit despite it not hurting.

"No means no honey" she said sternly.

"Mom!"

"What?"

"I..." he looks down and muttered pitifully. "But I really like him..."

She immediately felt bad the moment she saw this but attempted not to loose her ground. 

"You-" Inko's words were caught in her mouth as her resolved slowly deteriorated. "You don't know him," she struggled out and her heart officially shattered when he looked back up at her almost furious.

"I do know him!" Izuku countered angrily. "I know he works at a bookstore and has almost been fired ten different times, I know that he's roommates with two of his best friends who are dating and are really loud when they fuck, I know that theres a coffee shop across the street from where he works and his two other friends work there and know his order better then they know the menu, I know that he snorts when he laughs, I know that when he gets really excited over something, he can talk for hours about it, I know that we've spent hours apon hours talking to each other either late at night or just morning texts and I know that I've wanted to meet him in person ever since I first started talking to him almost two years ago!" He rambled on, but very poignantly. Inko practically melted at the fond look on his face and finally gave in.

"If... if he really means so much then-" she sniffed, on the verge of tears. "Go get him loverboy," she smiled up at him.

Izuku blinked for a moment, surprised, before breaking out into a huge smile and hugging his mother tightly. "Thank you mom!" He said, pulling back to wipe away a few tears that had accumulated in his eyes as well. "You won't regret this, I promise, you're gonna love him too," and then he practically ran out of there.

-

Mina leaned over the counter to poke her brooding friend in the cheek.

"What's got you down in the dumps kami-kam?" She asked playfully, willfully neglecting her job as the cash register.

Denki bitterly sipped his drink as he glared at his phone, not answering the question.

"Ah, Denks," Jirou hummed, coming up behind Mina and raping her arms around her girlfriend's waist. The coffee shope didn't have any customers at the moment aside from Kaminari himself so they could get away with a little slacking. "Is he not coming?" She asked over Mina's shoulder.

"Who?"

"His boyfriend,"

"Oooo, the online one?"

"Does he have another one?"

"No, i was just checking,"

"I don't know if he's coming, if we were going to meet, it was going to be today but he hasn't texted me anything since this morning," Kaminari whined, aggressively rubbing at his face in frustration.

And just then, his phone rang.

Denki looked at the screen in shock for way longer than necessary which got the two girls to question him.

"Who is it?" Jirou asked.

"It's him," Kaminari breathed, in shock.

"Him? Your boyfriend? But I thought you two never talked over the phone?" Ashido said incredulously.

"We don't," and with that, Denki slid the answer button and slowly brought the phone up to his ear and greeting with a tentative; "Hello?"

" _Hi_ _* **huff** * hey Kami!_" Came loudly from the other end of the line.

"Izuku? You never call, what's-"

" _It's h- * **wheeze** * hard to text and run * **cough** * where's that coffee shop again?_"

"Uhhh, [ _insert random adress here_ ]?" Kaminari said uncertainly but got nods from the two girls next to him. "Why are you running?"

" _The sooner I get there *huff* the more time I can spend with you,_ "

Denki's heart swelled with warmth and he couldn't stop the dopey smile that spread across his face even if he tried.

"Okay, I'll see you soon then,"

" _Yeah!_ " Midoriya chimed happily from the other end. " _See you!_ "

 _ **Click**_.

Kaminari turned to look at the girls again who both had matching mischievous grins but he paid them no mains and looked down at his phone screen and smiled even more, practically just staring at the name on screen with heart eyes. Izuku Midoriya. They were finally going to meet.

"You are so _gay_..."


	5. Chapter 5

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Kaminari /tries/ to kill himself and that's a bad thing, not everyone takes it well  
> 

Maybe it was better this way? Just giving up?

Kaminari wasn't exactly an A+ student, in academic or physical standards, and it really weighed on him. Sure, he was still passing, though barely, but he was constantly surrounded by people who were just.... better then him, in almost every way. Obviously, Ashido wasn't much better then him academically, but he was still last in his class.

Hanging out with Bakugou definitely didn't help.

Bakugou is cocky, but he's not wrong. He is strong, just like he says he is, smart too, and that just hung over Kaminari's head hauntingly. Ignoring his lackluster academic skills, his quirk wasn't all that great either. He relies heavily on clunky support items for precision shots and still gets dumb whenever he pushes even the slightest bit past his limit. He hasn't improved at all and he knows he's not the only one who feels like they're being passed, Kirishima has expressed this sentiment on multiple occasions, Kaminari was truly the worst.

Kirishima may be one of the hardest on themselves when it comes to it, but Kaminari was really the one who was suffering because of it. Unlike Kirishima, Kaminari hadn't actually improved in any way, that's the way he sees it at least, and constantly being at the base of half the insults Bakugou throws out there really beat him down.

Today just seemed to be the last straw.

The day itself wasn't hugely eventful, it passed just like every other normal day at U.A but Kaminari really wasn't in the place at the moment to endure it. Constantly keeping up a happy, dumb, and oblivious persona was exhausting, that's not to say Kaminari wasn't all of those things but he had his moments where he wasn't and having to fake it really took its toll. He did it though, he managed to keep it up all day until he made it back to his dorm room and immediately broke down sobbing.

Thankfully, Kaminari wasn't an exceptionally loud crier, so no one noticed, but he sobbed for a long time. Like, an embarrassing amount of time, he looked at the clock on his bedside table and saw that it was two am when he finally stopped crying and thats where he was right now. Him, just sitting in the silence of his room, a soft breeze outside, and his breathing.

And that's when he decided he wasn't a huge fan of that at all. Breathing.

Around two thirty, he was already prepared, pill bottle in hand and a glass of water right there to help it down. He stared at the bottle for a few moments of thought before he actually did anything with it. Should he text his friends to say that they shouldn't check on him in the morning and we want going to class? He opted not to, he should be thoroughly dead by then anyway so it shouldn't matter. 

He was debating whether or not he should write a note too but he decided not to do that either. The really sad part of this all was that Kaminari genuinely believed his friends and peers thought the same way he did and that he wasn't cared for enough that they'd even bother reading any pitiful note he left behind for them, not that he really knew anything to say in the first place.

He threw his head back, letting almost all the pills fall into his mouth except a single pill that didn't quite fit. He swallowed hard to get a few pills down before trying again with the help of water and finally getting them all down the third try. He sat there for a few moments, swirling the single pill around in the bottom of the bottle, watching it spin and kick around in the orange container.

At one point though, Kaminari spun the bottle a little too aggressively, launching the pill out and onto the ground in front of him. He sighed, leaning over to pick it up before he suddenly felt very disoriented and fell forward completely, clipping his side on his night table and flopping on the ground with a pitiful groan of pain. He didn't feel like he had the energy to get back up again so he decided to just stayed there on the ground and he smiled to himself a bit, glad that it was kicking in already but that was quickly shattered when-

"Kaminari?" He heard through muffled sences that was followed by an equally muffled knock on his door. Denki curses internally, stubbornly staying silent and hoping he locked his door. He couldn't actually be certain who was at the door, his fatigued and fogged senses unable to identify the voice but it really didn't matter. As long as they stayed out, it was fine. What he was really annoyed with was the fact that anyone was up at all and happened to be close enough to his door to hear the small thud of him falling on the floor.

"Kaminari, I heard something, are you alright?" They asked, knocking again, but Denki could barely recognize any sound other then the sound of his heart thumping in his ears. 'Just go away' he thought desperately and he only realised his vision was just as bad as his hearing when his door opened letting in the faint light of the hallway flood in and everything around was blurry and he still couldn't Identify who was there. 

The person said something else, a question maybe? Doesn't matter because the next thing he knew, they screamed. 'Perfect' he thought 'that was bound to wake people up, this isn't what I wanted' he grumbled internally and vaguely registered that he was being touched. The person grabbed him and was probably saying something too, were they crying too? Maybe, but it didn't matter, he still couldn't tell who it was and he just calmly closed his eyes and passed out, hopeing desperately that he stayed that way for forever.

-

Kaminari woke up to a blinding light and audibly winced as it burned his eyes. Once he accustomed himself to the brightness, he glanced around to asses his surroundings and was met with the all too familiar back of his homeroom teacher. His hair was pulled back into a bun, something that Denki had almost never seen before aside from the time he, Kirishima, Sero, and Bakugou nearly burnt down the kitchen at 2 am, and his scarf only barely dangling off of him, very unusual from the way he normally wore it. Aisawa visibly tensed all of a sudden and looked over his shoulder where his and Kaminari's eyes met.

Denki immediately froze because of this.

He was a very intimidating man by nature and Kaminari had no idea how he got in this situation in the first place. He was obviously in a hospital or medical room of some sorts but he had no idea what had transpired. Was he there because if training gone wrong? Another villain attack? It didn't matter since his biggest obstacle now was the wrath of Aizawa and a big speech on the fact that he wasn't improving at all. That's when he realised something though.

Aisawa wasn't glaring at him at all like he had originally expected him to be doing.

Not in any actual way that is, it was an odd look to see and it just barely fit his teacher's face but that might've been the scariest bit. Kaminari had no idea what was going on and seeing Aizawa even more disheveled then usual along with him being frighteningly calm when looking at him was bone chilling considering he knew nothing about the situation.

"You're awake," Aisawa grunted, snapping Kaminari out of whatever it was that he was spiraling though and got himself to sit up, something that took substantial more effort then he originally thought it would. Denki kept his jaw stubbornly and painfully clenched in hopes of not giving the man any reason to be angry with him, if he wasn't already angry and just looking calm which would just be infinitely more terrifying.

"How are you feeling?" Aisawa asked, sitting down at the edge of the hospital bed and tilting his head in question.

"I..." Kaminari hesitated, his lack of any knowledge on the situation made him uneasy and unsure how to answer. "I'm not in pain," he said simply, deciding it was the best thing at the moment.

"I wouldn't think you would be," Aizawa nodded. "Do you remember what happened?"

Denki paused a moment and then shook his head, looking at Aizawa curiously. It was weird to see his teacher this way, he wasn't angry or threatening, he wasn't bored or tired, and he wasn't cross at all, not in any clear way. Aizawa was simply calm, just looking at Kaminari, no malice or annoyance or anything, it was just so odd that it made Denki uncomfortable. Obviously, he knew that his teacher wasn't a horrible person, he definitely cared for them all, in his own way, but Kaminari had never thought he'd ever see something like this personally from the man.

"I see," Aizawa hummed in understanding. "What do you remember?" He asked, unnervingly temperate.

"Uhhhh, waking up late and running to school with Kirishima?" Kaminari answered uncertainly. "I think I had to double back and put on the correct pants," he chuckled lightly, trying to lighten the mood but immediately stopped as his eyes met Aizawa's again and his eyes bore into his soul.

"That's it?" Aizawa asked, brow twitching slightly.

Kaminari tried hard not to smile up at him, knowing what was going on. Aizawa was trying to keep a calm composure, Denki assumed that he probably sustained a head injury or something and he shouldn't be put under too much pressure, but he always did have the unique talent of irritating his teacher no matter what he said or what he was doing. Kaminari sat there and prepared himself for an onslaught of punishment and verbal abuse but... it never came?

Aizawa took a deep breath and sighed. "That's alright," he said calmly. "I should probably go tell everyone you're awake then," he nodded, standing up and straightening out his close.

"Oh- okay, how long have I been out?" Kaminari asked frantically.

"Hmm, not terribly long, it's about six o'clock right now on a Friday, you were supposed to be out for another week" Aizawa said as he made his way to exit the room and pausing in the doorway, glancing back at Kaminari incase he had anything more he wanted to say.

"Awe man," Kaminari groaned, flopping back down on the bed. "I'm blanking on four whole school days? How much homework is that?" He asked vaguely into the air, not really directed at Aizawa, holding his hands on front of his face and moving each of them up and down as if he were counting them.

"You don't have any homework," Aizawa said which caused Kaminari to shoot upright again. 

"I don't!? But-"

"Class was canceled the past three days and you've been excused from any work from Tuesday," Aizawa explained, turning again to leave.

"But why-"

But he was too late, the man was out the door and shut is behind him.

"-am I here..." Kaminari continued his sentence into the empty room with a sigh.

What's going on?

-

2 Days Before Denki woke up.

"Deku, maybe you should sit down?" Uraraka suggested tentatively, patting the empty space between her and Todoroki on the common room couch.

"Can't sit still," Midoriya said plainly, pacing in front of them and chewing on his nails. Iida and Uraraka glanced at eachother anxiously as Todoroki just watched his back and forth passively.

"Why don't you try and get some rest," Iida offered next. "I don't believe you've slept these past few nights and not sleeping can be very bad for you!" He said, hand chopping the air impactfully.

"Don't care," Midoriya mumbled, still mindlessly pacing in the middle of the room.

"Midoriya?" Todoroki prompted which finally got more of his attention, though in a negative way.

He gritted his teeth and pulled his hand away from his mouth, ripping a big chunk of his nail off in the process but it didn't matter to him as he barely noticed and just snapped at them. "What!?" He yelled, practically growling at them, causing the three of them to jump in surprise, before almost immediately realizing what he'd done, finally stopping his pacing and bowing his head in shame.

"Hey..." Izuku heard a tentative voice and felt a hand on his shoulder which made him look up to see Iida standing next to him with a knowing and overwhelmingly kind smile. "I know this is hard, but you stressing will only make it worse,"

"I know..." Midoriya said pitifully quiet, head still bent low.

"Midoriya?" Todoroki asked again, slightly more cautious.

Izuku sighed and looked up at his friend. "Yes Shouto?"

"What happened?"

Midoriya's breath hitched and body went stiff as a board as both Iida and Uraraka whipped their heads around to the dual haired boy. "Todoroki!" They both chastised, Uraraka hitting him in the shoulder for extra emphasis.

"What?" He questioned, looking between the three of them, confused. "I was the last to wake up the other morning, no body has told me anything," he said reasonably.

"We'll tell you later," Uraraka hissed. "Don't ask him right now!"

Izuku finally released his breath in a low sigh and relaxed his shoulders only slightly. "Uraraka, it's oka-"

"Deku."

The four or them that were sitting/standing in the middle of the common room all turned to see a familiar friend group walk into the room, Bakugou in the lead and looking at Midoriya poignantly.

The usually loud and expressive group were all just sluggishly following after Bakugou, and the already lackluster atmosphere in the room became just that much more dismal. They all made their way over to the couch opposite of the one already occupied and as they approached, another thing was noticed. 

They were all hanging onto eachother in some way or another, even Bakugou.

Ashido was clinging onto Kirishima's back like some sort of human knapsack, her legs legs wrapped around his waist and each one of her hands holding onto someone else's. Kirishima had his arm slung around Sero's shoulders which was awkward not just because he was shorter then the other but because Mina restricted Eijirou's range slightly, not that any of them seemed to care, of course. Sero's hand's were one of the ones occupying Ashido's grip but he also kept another hand gripped onto Kirishima's hand that was dangling off his shoulder. Jirou's hand was the one in Mina's other hand and she hung onto Bakugou's sleeve, Kirishima firmly gripping Bakugou's hand.

It didn't look the most comfortable, especially since they were walking around like that, but none of them seemed to care. It was odd to see them all just grasping onto one another but no one dared comment on it. It all looked desperate, holding onto one another like their lives depended on it, like if they weren't holding on enough that they'd just dissolve into nothingness and it was really depressing. Watching the group, usually full of smiles, down in the dumps and barely focused on anything other then keeping one another close, making sure everyone was there. But that was the problem. They were missing one.

Kaminari.

Arguably the loudest and happiest of them all wasn't there and they seemed to be frantically trying to keep it all together but without a significant component of glue. Midoriya felt his heart ache for the group and almost felt sick to his stomach. He cursed himself internally for feeling so horrible when he wasn't ever really close with him, Kaminari's closest friends were utterly wrecked, he had no right to-

"Stop it," Midoriya looked up at the voice and saw that the group had stopped right behind him, Bakugou just glaring at him and probably would've had his arms crossed if he were able.

"Kachan? What do you-"

"I know what you're thinking and I'm telling you to knock it off," Bakugou growled. Izuku barely had the energy to be doing anything other then worry the way he'd been doing, let alone be threatened by Bakugou. The group following Bakugou also seemed to be the same way, barely enough energy too do anything but stare at the ground and mindlessly follow their ringleader, except for Kirishima who was looking at the side of Bakugou's face questioningly, though that also just proved how tired he was since he'd normally say something about it.

"Oi," Midoriya snapped out of his thoughts and back to Bakugou who seemed to just be growing increasingly annoyed. "What did I just say? Quit it!" Before he had the chance to respond, Kirishima interrupted, squeezing Bakugou's hand.

"Katsuki..." Izuku assumed Kirishima meant it to sound like some kind of warning but it just sounded like a pitiful begging, tone matching the way the rest of them looked, miserable.

"What?" Midoriya questioned weakly.

"You're thinking that you don't deserve to feel the way you do and I'm telling you to cut that shit out before I blow your face up," Bakugou growled and mostly certainly would've crackled his palms to go along with the threat if they weren't preoccupied. Once Bakugou said that however, suddenly all eyes snapped to Midoriya, even the members of the "Bakusquad" that had otherwise been completely out of it. Izuku immediately tensed and avoided eye contact with everyone, opting to stare at the ground desperately hoping for the issue to be dropped.

The universe wasn't so merciful.

"Is that true Deku...?" Uraraka questioned tentatively, no doubt looking at him with her big round eyes full of sadness but he had no idea since he refused to look at anyone and had squeezed his eyes shut after she spoke. After a long moment in tense and uncomfortable silence, Midoriya shakily nodded getting nearly everyone in the room to take a sharp intake of breath, everyone aside from Bakugou who already knew it to be true and Todoroki who was clueless and very unaware of the situation.

"Midoriya..." he heard Iida breath out next to him and his own breath hitched as tears welled up in his desperately shut eyes.

"That's not fair!" Midoriya's head shot up as he heard Kirishima's unmistakable voice yell. All eyes were switched from Izuku to him except Bakugou's who just continued to glare at him.

"What?" Izuku questioned, blinking in suprise which got a a few welled up tears in his eyes to fall.

"You can't feel like you can't feel the way you do! If anyone has the right to feel so strong, it's you!" The redhead said, only partially making sense.

"What... is happening?" Todoroki questioned quietly, obviously not wanting to make the situation worse.

Midoriya signed and wiped at his face to get rid of his shed tears before turning to Todoroki. "Kaminari-kun attempted to kill himself and I..... I found him," he explained politely.

Todoroki suddenly looked sad and very uncomfortable and looked down into his lap. "Oh..." was all he could say.

"And I," Midoriya continued, but paused, not knowing how to say it or if he even wanted to. He shook his head and looked at the ground. "Nevermind, it's stupid," 

"No," he heard and Izuku looked up again to see Bakugou still glaring at him. "The only stupid thing here is how difficult it is for us to get through doors like this," he scoffed, gesturing to his group of friends attached to him and one another with a flick of his head.

Midoriya let a small smile appear on his face first a moment at the amusing comment, but it didn't last and he looked at the ground sadly again.

"You," Bakugou started, drawing Izuku's attention back to him. "You've got a shit storm going on in your head right now and you're gonna fucking let loose, you got that?" He demanded, impatiently awaiting an answer.

"Kachan-"

"Vent your shit out, you don't have a choice," Bakugou said, taking a single step backwards which effectively got his entire group's knees to buckle and fall onto the couch together, all eyes back on Izuku.

"I... I just had a crush on him, okay?" Midoriya says quietly, hugging himself tightly. "I still do, I was just... trying so desperately to get rid of it so I didnt have to deal with it and just as I thought I had pushed it down and out of my system I-" he choked as he felt tears welling up in his eyes again.

"Then I find him dying on the floor and I realized I wasn't over him at all and I had only succeeded in making myself care for him more and how am I supposed to deal with him dying when I couldn't even-" he cut off into a sob, covering his mouth with is hand before latching onto Iida, who was still standing next to him, and cried into his chest.

The rest of the evening there in the common room, post Midoriya crying, was very quiet. No one in the sitting area made a sound aside from izuku's occasional sniffles and the only person who walked through the area was Kouta who came down for a glass of water.

No one moved aside from Iida gently guiding Izuku to sit down halfway though his sobbing fit and they all ended up sleeping together in the common room that night. Uraraka, Iida, Midoriya, and Todoroki on one couch and Sero, Kirishima, Ashido, Bakugou, and Jirou all awkwardly placed together on the other. They were all exhausted and it was, despite how uncomfortable sleeping on a couch with four to five people on it might seem, one of the best sleeps they all had in a while.


	6. Chapter 6

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Midoriya has a perfect way to shut him up  
> 711 words

Some people argued whether Midoriya's or Kaminari's smiles were better (Kirishima used to also be a part of this debate until he was ruled out due to once terrifying a group of school children with his overly sharp teeth).

On Team Midoriya™, it was argued that he was genuine, in both smile and everything else (not just because he's a terrible liar, though that does play a part). The way he just seemed to light up a room with just a simple flash of his teeth had people set in their ways on who they voted for.

Team Kaminari™ on the other hand had a hard battle to fight since they couldn't outright say Midoriya's smile wasn't heartwarming, every single person in their class had experienced it first hand and saying Midoriya didn't have a big effect on people was just blatant lying. No, they had to think of actual arguments as to why Kaminari's was superior which was, relatively speaking, pretty damn hard since most of the people on Team Kaminari™ were his close friends who none of which were particularly smart with stuff.

As for the two in question, they were very annoyed whenever the argument was brought up because they obviously knew the answer. Except, no they didn't, because they disagreed on it too. Kaminari was confident in the freckled boy's smile superiority whereas you had no chance in hell on changing Midoriya's mind that the blonde's was better.

The most hilarious thing about it was that the two themselves never brought up the argument but they were always the most heated and the ones who ended every round, this particular time, not any different. For the most part.

"My teeth are crooked and yellow!" Kaminari shouted angrily across the common room. "Your dentist must weep from of joy at your perfect pearly whites!"

"My dentist doesn't shed a tear for shit, I never floss!" Midoriya shouted back, just as heated. "Who gives a damn about that when your smile can literally light up a room!" 

"You're one to talk!" Denki yelled. "Anyone who's ever met you has found you either overwhelmingly happy-go-lucky or absolutely infuriating with that smile of yours!"

"Oh my God, just kiss already," Jirou growled as she sat in the middle of the two arguing boys. 

"What??" Ashido asked incredulously, whipping her hear around to look at the girl sitting next to her.

"These two have been aggressively been screaming compliments at eachother for months, that's so gay," Kyoka snorted a laugh.

Midoriya (taking the suggestion, apparently) suddenly stalked forward and Kaminari, who had been relatively confident in his arguing, immediately tensed and held up his hands in surrender.

"Wait- no, Midoriya-" He took a step backwards to avoid him but just ended up stumbling and falling into the couch. "Oof- dude, I admit defeat! I have the better smile, just don't kill me ple-"

He was cut off by Midoriya roughly grabbing him by the front of the shirt and yanking Denki in. A few wolf whistles from others in the common room and encouraging yells from the sidelines, the two seemingly always at odds boys were now kissing right there in front of everyone. I'm also sure it would have become quite heated if Kaminari were actually in the right mind to reciprocate the kiss in any meaningful way. 

After a while, Midoriya pulled away with a small smirk on his face. "Sorry, you were about to surrender, weren't you?" He chuckled.

"Wheyyyyy~" Kaminari mindlessly drawled, slumping in his seat having shocked himself dumb.

"Bro! You killed him!" Kirishima yelled, rushing over to tend to his friend's newly deteriorated mental state.

"Oh no, I didn't mean to!" Midoriya panicked, also trying to help.

"Don't be fucking stupid, he's just short-circuited again, this damn Deku just overwhelmed him," Bakugou grumbled as he walked past.

"Huh?" Midoriya questioned, looking over his shoulder at the eternally angry teen. "But he wasn't using his quirk," he said, confused.

"He doesn't need need to," Jirou said from where she was still sitting. "It's kinda e-"

"I'm okay!" Kaminari suddenly yelled, getting Midoriya to whip his head back around to watch him attempt to stand but just stumbled and sat hard back onto the couch. "What just... happened?"


	7. Chapter 7

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> idk where i was going with this

"Oni-chan, you're being annoying," Hana whined, hanging upside down off the side of her brother's bed as she watched him walk around his room and shoving a few last things into his suitcase.  
  
"Oh, be quiet," Eiji shushed, playfully batting his sister on her exposed stomach. "You're just not admitting that you're going to miss me while I'm gone," he said, sticking his tounge out at her as he shoved more socks into the suitcase.  
  
"As if!" Hana scoffed, rolling her eyes. "Why would I miss your mug always moping around?"  
  
"Because you love meeeee~" Eiji cooed, stalking towards her menacingly with his hands flexed like claws before lunging at her and picking her up in a violent hug.  
  
Hana screeched and riled around in the sudden hold and tried to break out of her brother's grip, back onto solid ground. Obviously, with his past as a pole vaulter, Eiji has excellent upper body strength meaning all of her attempts were futile.  
  
"Excuse me," the two siblings froze in their struggling against one another and slowly turned around to their mother, who was standing in the doorway with a less than impressed look on her face.  
  
"Am I interrupting something?" She asked venomously with quirk of her brow, obviously telling them that there were very few excuses that she would take from them.  
  
"Nope!" Eiji replied almost immediately, dropping his sister and moving back to his suit case, poignantly avoiding his mother's eyes.  
  
"Nothing at all," Hana grumbled from the floor, glaring at the back of her brother's head for dropping her so readily.  
  
Their mother, Mei, rolled her eyes at their antics but just ignored it for the time being, addressing her son. "Shunichi will be here soon, are you ready to go?"  
  
"Yep!" Eiji responded cheerfully, zipping up his suitcase and lifting it up to prop it up on it's wheels. "I'm all set,"  
  
"How long will you be there for?" Mei asked, making a motion and beckoning him to come closer before wrapping him in a tight hug. "Who am I gonna have to open jars when you're gone?"  
  
Eiji chuckled into his mother's shoulder and squeezed a little tighter. "You still have dad,"  
  
Mei scoffed. "Your father is just as bad at opening jars as I am,"  
  
They heard an indignant "hey! I can hear you!" from the living room and the three of them burst into laughter.  
  
"Don't worry mom, I'll open jars for you!" Hana declared, flexing her arm and patting her bicep.  
  
Eiji laughed even harder and untangled himself from his mother, making his way back over to his sister.  
  
"Yeah, who needs me when there's this gremlin," Eiji chuckled and squeezed her in another hug, blowing raspberries into her cheeks.  
  
Hana screeched again as she tried to get away from him, only succeeding when Eiji willfully let her go, allowing her to scramble away.  
  
"You suck so bad!" Hana whined, wiping at her cheeks as if she had been infected with something and desperately needed to get rid of it.  
  
"Hana, your brother's leaving soon, at least pretend to care a little," Mei chastised but wasn't very effective do to her amused smile.  
  
"I care plenty," She huffed, crossing her arms over her chest and pouting. "I care that he's not going to be here to embarrass me in front of my friends anymore and for that I am thankful,"  
  
"Awe, but Rita and Tomo-chan love me,"  
  
"Yea well I don't," Hana huffed again, rolling her eyes again too. "You don't need to share embarrassing stories about me to be liked,"  
  
"But I works wonders," Eiji stated with a cheeky smile, leaving his sister fuming.  
  
"Oh that's IT!" Hana yelled. "I'm gonna beat you up one last time before you go, come here!" She growled, lunging at her brother who very narrowly avoided her and jumped over the bed to get further away to which she quickly made her way to do the same when-  
  
DING DONG!  
  
The pair of siblings paused at the sound of the doorbell ringing heared their father downstairs get up to answer it.  
  
"That must be Shunichi," Mei hummed, having also reacted to the doorbell and looking behind her, before looking back at her children, her unimpressed expression fixed back into place. "I trust you not to do anything stupid while I go to greet him?"  
  
Neither of them had the will to muster anything but a shaky nod, which their mother accepted and turned to leave downstairs. After a few beats of silence, Hana still halfway onto the bed where she was going to lunge at Eiji from and her brother still fully prepared to sprint, the boy was the first to move as he relaxed his stance and grabbed his suitcase. Hana also relaxed, but moodily slumming against the headboard and not so studly glaring at her brother.  
  
"I hate you," She grumbled under her breath, crossing her arms over her chest again and glaring more.  
  
"Hm? What was that?" Eiji question with a cocky, knowing smile that just made Hana glare at him even harder.  
  
Without waiting for an answer, he grabbed his bag and made his way downstairs, shortly followed by his sister.  
  
"Good morning Ibe-san," Eiji greeted as he made it to the bottom of the stairs, smiling warmly at the man.  
  
"Good morning Ei-chan," he greeted back, equally warm. "Are you all set to go?"  
  
"Yes, all ready to go," Eiji anwered, gesturing towards his suitcase.  
  
"Is that going to be enough for the whole trip?" Ibe asked, looking oodly at the bag. "We could be there for awhile."  
  
"Probably not," came a voice behind him, and Eiji trurned to glare half heartedly at his sister. "He doesn't really have anything else to bring with him though,"  
  
Ibe chuckled at the insult. "Wel, good morning to you too Hana-chan," he greeted even more brightly then before. "Isn't that a little mean?"  
  
Hana scoffed. "It's the truth,"  
  
Eiji lightly hit Hana in the arm before turning back towards Ibe, ignoring her indignant complaints. "When does our flight leave again, Ibe-san?" He askes.  
  
Ibe, wisely, also ignores Hana and answers the boy's question. "It leaves in roughly four hours, which means we should leave now since it takes a while to get to the airport,"  
  
Eiji made a surprised noise and looked at his watch to confirm. "Oh, alright, I-"  
  
"I'll bring your bag to the car, you say goodbye to your family" Ibe said, interupting the boy and quickly grabbing the suitcase and exiting the house with it.  
  
"Ah, right," Eiji nodded stiffly, showly turning towards his parents who, up until this point, he had largely been ignoring. He cringed slightly as he saw tears already forming in their eyes.  
  
"Ma-" Eiji didn't even get a chance to get a word out when his mother burst into tears and threw herself at him, embracing him in a tight hug.  
  
"Eiji!" She cried, squeezing him a little tighter. "Oh, don't you dare stay out there too long or I will beat you with rice spoon,"  
  
Eiji chuckled and hugged her back, taking in the warm embrace of his mother for the last time for a while. He felt his father approach them and place a hand on his back. Eiji brought his head up from the crook of his mother's neck and looked at the other man who was wearing a pained smile and clearly trying to save face.  
  
"You better bring us lots of souvenirs, I want proof you did more then just a job while there you workaholic," He laughs wetly, clearly struggling not to let tears fall. "You've got a chance at life so live it, got it?"  
  
Eiji couldn't help the even wider smile that was spread across his face as he extended an arm to his father and beckoning him to join their hug. "Of course Papa..." He said softly once the older man finally relented and left the three of them just hanging there in the foyer.  
  
"Hana, come join us," Their mother tried to beckon her as well but the younger girl just stood off to the side, stubbornly, with her arms crossed over chest.  
  
"Yeah, no, I'm good thanks," she said, rolling her eyes slightly.  
  
The three of them hung there more for what felt like a very long time but when they finally let go, it still felt too soon. Eiji awkwardly said a short goodbye to them all, unable to look any of them in the eye, then made it to the door. He paused, unsure if he should look back or not, and right when he was going to push forward and leave, he felt a tug on his shirt. Eiji turned to see his sister, holding onto his sleeve and blushing, looking away to avoid eye contact.  
  
"Oh?" Eiji smiled at her, though probably not as cheeky as he meant to. "Finally going to admit you love me, huh?"  
  
Hana scoffed and rolled her eyes, letting go of him too. She stood there silent for a few seconds, shifting uncomfortably in her spot for that time before seemingly exploding, grabbing his hand, pressing something into it, and shoving him out. " _OkayweloveyoucomehomeanddontdieGOODBYE_!" She shouts and slamming the door immeadiately after. ("Okay, we love you, come home, and don't die, GOODBYE!")  
  
"Whelp, she's as lively at ever," Ibe said, standing next to the very whiplashed EIji, most likely there to grab the younger man for them to leave.  
  
"Yeah..." Eiji says slowly, nodding in agreement before looking at his hand to see what she had given him before rolling his eyes and turning to head towards the car. "But just as annoying," he grumbled.  
  
_Love? What was she thinking?_

_~_

_Apparently, she must have thought he was going to meet a really hot, blonde foreign gang leader and have a really high-stakes, yet somehow at the same time, domestic life with him because that's exactly what happened._

_~_

  
Eiji sat on his bed and stared at the charm in his hand, glaring at it as if almost trying to will his thoughts into his sister's head through the flimsy thing. At the moment, he had this disgustingly sweet, domestic even, life in the middle of a drug conspiracy and gang war and none of it felt right. Obviously, Eiji himself wasn't even supposed to be involved in it, but no one he was surrounded with felt like they fit either.  
  
Kong and Bones were like overgrown children having fun but were thrown into something so much bigger than themselves and given access to guns. Alex felt like another tired dad figure along with Max and Ibe who also didn't quite belong there. And God, Skipper was just a kid, Sing **_is_** just a kid, and Eiji didn't remember how old Shorter was, but he couldn't have been older than himself. He almost felt sick thinking of all these good people who have done so much for him being trapped in a life that suited them, **_sure_** , but left much to be desired and wasn't the best or what they deserved.  
  
_Peace._  
  
You could argue that they were all fighting for their peace, but fighting just lead to more fighting and fighting until someone else died and that doesn't matter because the rest of them survived just to keep _fighting_. And here Eiji was, the most out of place of them all, doing nothing to help.  
  
_**BANG!**_  
  
Eiji jumped at the sound of the front door slamming open and was fully prepared to sprint, to go hide, but let himself calm down slightly as he heard the grumbling of the person who entered the home. It was not the grumbling of someone with the intent to trash the home looking for anything or anyone to take so Eiji assumed it was someone who was allowed to be there, just not in a good mood. He couldn't make out whose voice it was, nor could he figure out who it was from their footsteps since they were frustratedly stomping. He thought for a moment that it might have been Alex, Eiji had overheard that the man was going to be the leader of a pretty large and important operation soon so he assumed something must have gone wrong and so he obviously wasn't happy. That thought was discarded, though, when Eiji heard the footsteps get closer to the bedroom door.  
  
No one in the gang ever went near the bedroom, they knew better not to, so when the person was practically right outside the door, Eiji started to worry again. 'Maybe it is an intruder-?' he thought for a second before the door was swung open and he let out a relieved breath that he had unknowingly been holding.  
  
It was Ash.  
  
Arguably the person Eiji thought belonged here the least aside from himself. Obviously, Ash fit into gang life pretty well, you would hope so for someone being the leader and all. But that didn't mean he didn't **_also_** fit into a quiet, much less high-stake, life and oh boy did he deserve it too after everything he's been through in his meer eighteen years of life. Ash deserved to be happy and if Eiji wasn't so adamant on that end goal, he would've thrown in the towel a long time ago and flown back to Japan to bug his sister and wallow in self-pity of his ruined future career again.  
  
Back to now, though, with a very not happy Ash standing in the doorway and a slightly scared Eiji, still on edge and in the position where he was planning on running. In all honesty, he hadn't expected to see Ash so soon, or else he wouldn't have been so startled by his arrival. The blonde had often gone for days at a time and this time was supposed to be no different. Except it was since usually he just was tired and hungry when he got back after leaving for a few days. Today, however, he had only been gone a few hours and was clearly unhappy, something must have gone wrong.  
  
Eiji relaxed soon after realizing who it was and just looked Ash in the eyes. Ash's gaze, starting as vaguely frustrated and not in the mood for shit, softened as he looked back and into Eiji's. He let out a long, tension-filled, breath, sighing. Making his way over to the bed, not even bothering with his own bed since it was sooo much further away (a meter or so) and face planted into the plush comforter, letting out a long, slightly muffled, groan.  
  
"Hello to you too," Eiji greeted in amusement, getting up and heading to the end of the bed, pushing Ash fully onto it so he wasn't dangling his legs off the side. He also took off the blonde's shoes so he didn't have them on the covers and his socks, because they stank, and threw them into a laundry hamper on the other side of the room. When Eiji turned back, Ash had flipped onto his back and was looking at the other with half-lidded eyes and a small little smirk on his face.  
  
"Are you sure you're not my maid?" He asked, smile growing a bit more as Eiji dramatically rolled his eyes.  
  
"I'm not sure even a maid with a good, above-average salary, would go anywhere near your stinky feet," He said earnestly, scoffing slightly.  
  
"Then why did you?" Ash asked, borderline grinning at him now.  
  
"Because," Eiji started, obviously trying to scowl at the other but it was ruined by his own amusement leaking out into a small smile. "That's my bed you're in and it was either that or sleep with the remnants of the dirty streets of New York later,"  
  
"Of course," Ash said almost immediately, nodding sagely, or what would have been if he didn't have a sly smirk on his face. "Because the only thing you want in bed with you is a used toilet,"  
  
Eiji paused for a moment, as if to think, but quickly shook his head. "If by toilet, you mean yourself, then yes," he said, nodding, and getting an odd look to which he just grinned and continued. "You're my gold toilet,"  
  
Ash had sat up at that point, but froze, looking at Eiji with wide eyes. That was, before snorting and throwing his head back with laughter. Eiji smiled proudly, making his way back over to the bed and sitting down next to the other, just watching contently as he laughed. Once Ash calmed down, he wiped a tear from his eye and looked at Eiji, smile still wide across his face.  
  
"You have no idea what that means, _do_ _you?_ " He asked, clearly more amused by that fact than what Eiji had actually said.  
  
"Nope!" Eiji chirped, a little too cheerfully. "But I know you like it when I'm wildly incorrect, so that's okay,"  
  
Ash sighed and flopped back onto the bed and continued to look at Eiji, only a simple small smile on his face now. "Thanks, I needed that,"  
  
"No problem," Eiji said, shrugging before patting the back of Ash's hands that he folded over his stomach. "I wasn't expecting to see you back so soon,"  
  
Ash hummed. "Well, I'm here now," he looked down and grabbed Eiji's hand, intertwining their fingers. "What were you doing before I got here?" He asked, looking back to Eiji's face to find that he wasn't looking back at him anymore, switching between looking at his hand clutched in a fist in his lap and the hand that Ash was holding, his smile no longer there.  
  
"Nothing much," Eiji said, landing on his hand in his lap and just staring at it. "Just thinking,"  
  
"About what?" Ash asked as gently as he could, also glancing at Eiji's balled fist before going back to his face.  
  
"Just... my sister, I miss home," Eiji shrugged, now opting to look off to the side, avoiding eye contact altogether.  
  
Ash at up immediately, letting go of Eiji's hand and pressing forward. "You can go-"  
  
"No," Eiji said, finally looking back at Ash with a calm sort of intensity that always made Ash's head spin, but he's never gotten a chance to sit down and think about exactly why. "I'm not going home and I don't want to,"  
  
Ash furrowed his brow, confused. "But you just-"  
  
Eiji let out an amused breath, cutting him off. "I'm **homesick** , but that doesn't mean I'd prefer to be there," He said, with the same intensity and honesty that was in his eyes and it made Ash's spine tingle. "I want to be **_here_** ,"  
  
"Why?" Ash couldn't help but blurt out. He and Eiji have already had conversations very similar to this one but for the life of him, Ash couldn't remember a real, fulfilling answer to that question. Why would Eiji give up the option for peaceful living in his home country and risk his life in Ash's?  
  
Eiji smiled again, but it was different from before. He was normally very easy to read but that smile had so much behind it, Ash didn't even know where to begin. Then, Eiji simply said:  
  
"I'd be bored,"  
  
"... _huh?_ "

 _"I'd be bored,"_  
"Can you imagine your life without the gang? No violence and stuff?" Eiji asked, a smile back on his face despite how serious they were a few moments before.  
  
Ash paused for a second and thought about it. He _could_ imagine a life, but it was still with Eiji. Him trying to get Ash to eat natto, trying to wake him up in the morning, just a sweet and calm life. He slowly nodded. "Kind of, why?"  
  
"Is it exciting?"  
  
"What?" Ash asked, back to being thoroughly confused.  
  
"It's not very interesting, right?" Eiji questioned, pressing forward slightly but not looking for an answer since he continued to talk. "We're in the _middle_ of a gang war. In _New_ _York!_ Nothing in Izumo during my nineteen years of living there will ever be more interesting than the couple of months I've been here,"  
  
"You've almost _died_!" Ash said incredulously. "Multiple times, how is that a good thing!?"  
  
"Oh, it's not," Eiji chuckled, waving a dismissive hand and rolling his eyes. "But it's cool, a calm life is safer, but it's less fun,"  
  
Ash just stared at him, wide-eyed. He wanted a life with Eiji, in Japan, no gangs but... **he** **had** **a** **point.** There's only so much happy domestic fluff you can have and live before it gets redundant and you want something more. That's why so many marriages ended in divorce, they got tired of each other. Not that Ash saw himself ever getting tired of Eiji and his company, but you get the point.  
  
Ash suddenly snorted, shaking his head and laughing. "You're so weird..."  
  
"Yeah..." Eiji agreed contently, leaning over and falling into Ash, resting his head on his shoulder.  
  
"But I like your weird," Ash said, hesitantly going to grab Eiji's hand.  
  
"Thanks," Eiji sighed, meeting Ash halfway and intertwining their fingers, a small smile on his face as he looked at their hands. "I like your weird too,"  
  
" _I'm_ weird?" Ash asked, raising a brow.  
  
Eiji shifted to look Ash in the face. "You're the one who keeps telling me to leave whilst also wanting me around, seems pretty odd to _me_ ," he said a bit cheekily.  
  
Ash let out an amused breath. "I just want you to be happy-"  
  
"I _am_ happy!" Eiji interrupted, sitting up again and looking Ash in the face, unblinking. "I'm happy here with you and the moment I'm not, you will know, the moment I want to go home, I'll go, but I'm dragging you right along with me," he said, squeezing Ash's hand slightly.  
  
Ash and Eiji stare at each other for a long time after that before Ash finally caved and sighed, leaning in and pressing his forehead into Eiji's shoulder. "Yeah, okay," he breathed. "I can live with that,"  
  
"Good," Eiji said with an authoritative nod. " **Because** **you** **don't** **have** **a** **choice** ,"  
  
Ash chucked at that but doesn't say anything else and they just hung there, a nice, comfortable silence between them. Eiji rocked ever so slightly from side to side, taking Ash with him as he continued to lean into the boy's shoulder. After a long while, Eiji spoke up, squeezing Ash's hand again.  
  
"Soooo," he started, drawling a bit. "I was gonna take a nap right about when you got here, so, uh-"  
  
"Naptime?" Ash supplied, raising his head and looking at Eiji.  
  
" _Naptime_?"  
  
"Naptime."  
  
"Right,"  
  
_So they had a nap. Or tried to, anyway._


End file.
